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Google Chrome Is Switching To a Two-Week Release Cycle (9to5google.com) 31

Posted by BeauHD from the change-of-plans dept.
Google is accelerating Chrome's major release cadence from four weeks to two starting with version 153 on September 8th. "...our goal is to ensure developers and users have immediate access to the latest performance improvements, fixes and new capabilities," says Google. "Building on our history of adapting our release process to match the demands of a modern web, Chrome is moving to a two-week release cycle." The company says the "smaller scope" of these releases "minimizes disruption and simplifies post-release debugging." They also cite "recent process enhancements" that will "maintain [Chrome's] high standards for stability." 9to5Google reports: There will still be weekly security updates between milestones. This applies to desktop, Android, and iOS, while there are "no changes to the Dev and the Canary channels": "A Chrome Beta for each version will ship three weeks before the stable release. We recommend developers test with the beta to keep up to date with any upcoming changes that might impact your sites and applications."

The eight-week Extended Stable release schedule for enterprise customers and Chromium embedders will not change. Chromebooks will also have "extended release options": "Our priority is a seamless experience, so the latest Chrome releases will roll out to Chromebooks after dedicated platform testing. We are adapting these channels for the new two-week browser cycle and we will share more details soon regarding milestone updates for managed devices."
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Google Chrome Is Switching To a Two-Week Release Cycle More

Google Chrome Is Switching To a Two-Week Release Cycle

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  • Just make it once a day (Score:3)

    by silvergig ( 7651900 ) on Tuesday March 03, 2026 @07:18PM (#66021428)
    Just make it once a day, or hey, every hour. That way, I can update Chrome between the gig of Win11 updates coming in.

  • I use Firefox and try to avoid Chrome (though I have it on my computer "just in case").

    But I'm wondering if and why Google Chrome is so unstable/buggy/insecure/whatever that it requires a new release every two weeks.

    I can't see how that would be necessary unless someone is really dropping the ball here and in that case they probably have the wrong people doing the software development.

    "Our web browser is so defective that we have to update it every two weeks" just doesn't seem like a great way to increase o

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by SeaFox ( 739806 )

      But I'm wondering if and why Google Chrome is so unstable/buggy/insecure/whatever that it requires a new release every two weeks.

      Yes, I was questioning how big a difference in performance between two versions was justifying just an aggressive release schedule. Like are people really struggling that much with slow performance on a browser that constantly talks about how fast it is?

      With keeping uBlock Origin working in Chrome a chore now I chose to uninstall it. If I need a "just in case" browser to A-B test against Firefox I just open Microsoft Edge now.

      • Well, ideally Google would like to get web certificate lifetimes down to one or two days, and Chrome's major release cadence would match that. Then each new major release could include the most up-to-date list of all currently accepted certificate authorities.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by alexru ( 997870 )
          Browsers only include a list of root CAs and those have a long life time. Dropping lifetime on root CAs would be an absolute nightmare.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        But I'm wondering if and why Google Chrome is so unstable/buggy/insecure/whatever that it requires a new release every two weeks.

        Yes, I was questioning how big a difference in performance between two versions was justifying just an aggressive release schedule. Like are people really struggling that much with slow performance on a browser that constantly talks about how fast it is?

        Well, I mean, if you have to relaunch every two weeks and close all your windows, that certainly won't hurt performance. :-D

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        It's not about performance, it's security. This will allow them to do fewer out-of-band patches, because any fix is a maximum of two weeks from a regular release. If it's not being actively exploited, they can probably wait for that.

    • Actually, frequent releases is a sign of a healthy product. It means each release can be low-risk, and has some pretty good automated testing behind it. Backend services aim for pushing once a day.

      • Re: Is Chrome really that unstable? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Kisai ( 213879 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2026 @04:00AM (#66021858)

        That is blatently false. It means the QA is garbage if they are constantly fixing broken things every two weeks.

        Like the most obnoxious thing I see in iOS software updates is "bugfixes and performance fixes" no details. Tell me why I should bother updating the damn app while I'm on my 5G, and 2 hours away from anywhere.

        In most cases, these browser updates could be held off for a year, and nobody would notice a thing.

        • That's not in line with the currently industry delusion of "move fast and break things." Get it together.

        • Not every change is a fix. Some are migrations, or refactors to support future efforts, or features. Changes are most likely being submitted every day. The more changes you put into a release, the riskier that release is, and the harder it is to find the problems when they occur.

          Now, the push-daily model doesn't work either client-side apps like it does with servers, but I'd still much prefer a monthly or biweekly schedule to annual.

      • No it means a buggy product not yet ready for production.

    • Well, they have way more security bugs after moving from 6 week releases to 4 week releases, so they are trying to fix it by moving to 2 week releases :D

  • If you must use a Chromium browser on Windows, Supermium is a good alternative. Real uBlock origin works. Supermium supports even Windows 7 machines, so people who like their old computer have a way to go online with it. And since you are not using the default platform, you are less of a malware target.

    • Thank you.

      Recently found out about it, although I was using r3dfox on my Win8.1 machine.

      Not sure how r3dfox built by a single dev can compile and fix several issues to make Firefox run on Win7 and 8.1 machine, but Mozilla with their highly paid devs is unable to do the same?

      Trying to stick with win8.1 as long as I can before being forced to downgrade to spyware-ridden Win10.

  • You know Chrome 18,432,300 is just so much more performant than the Chrome Version 3,143,802 that shipped a mere two years ago.

  • AKA "We're putting all the testing work on our users so we don't have to do it"

    • Hardly. If you're on the Google Canary channel for actual testing you end up with a different Chrome build in the evening compared to the morning. Literally twice daily testing builds.

      Google does a lot of evil shit, but I can't recall a time in recent memory where they shipped a buggy / broken version of Chrome, or had to roll back, or issue and out of band update to address something not working. Heck even for plugins.

  • If I only got release every two weeks I think Iâ(TM)d die. Google making a bold move here.

  • The demands of a "modern" web? (Score:3)

    by peppepz ( 1311345 ) on Wednesday March 04, 2026 @04:01AM (#66021860)
    What is this "modern" web that requires new features, not security updates, every two weeks? Because certainly it's not users.
    Nowadays the word "modern" has become a red flag for a company pushing their development or business models over their users' needs or desires.

    • users' needs or desires.

      While I agree, philosophically you have this backwards. A user's needs or desires are never addressed by the tech industry. They are *created*. A company is always pushing the their business model and the result creates the need. Think of the day when Apple announced an iPhone with an all touch screen front and everyone thought that it would never work. Or the idea of a touch only device 4x the size of a phone, while running a phone OS. The concept of streaming video was dead on arrival, pay a monthly fee?

  • Got to keep ahead in the whack-a-mole game with those pesky ad blockers!

  • Do they have that many bugs that they need to do this? Otherwise, what conceivable "new features" are they rolling out, given the HTML std hasn't changed?

    • The new features are all going to relate to arms race with anti-ad and download, and better analytics. How do i know this? Because why else?

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