Google says it will speed up the release of Chrome updates. Starting with Chrome 94 in the third quarter of 2021, Google will release milestones from its browser every four weeks, instead of every six weeks. This is the first time that Google has accelerated its Chrome launch schedule in more than a decade.
“As we improved our testing and release processes for Chrome and deployed fortnightly security updates to improve our patch gap, it became clear that we could shorten our release cycle and deliver new features more quickly,” explains Alex Mineer, technical manager program in Chrome.
While consumers will see a new version of Chrome each month, IT administrators will be able to opt for a new Extended Stable option that includes milestone releases every eight weeks. Stable Extended will be available for corporate administrators and Chromium incorporators who need extra time to manage updates in their environments. Important security updates will still arrive every two weeks in this release, but Extended Stable should avoid the situation where silent Chrome experiments end up annoying IT administrators.
Google says it is also planning “several stable release options” for Chrome OS and will share details with Chrome OS administrators in the coming months.
Since other popular browsers, such as Microsoft’s Edge and Brave, also use Chromium, we’re looking to see how it can affect them. Brave told us that he is planning to move to a four-week release cycle as well, instead of the current three-week cadence: forward, ”says a spokesman. Microsoft declined to comment on its plans for Edge.
March 5 update, 4:17 PM ET: Added the new Brave release cycle and Microsoft’s refusal to comment.