Google Fast Tracks Its Release Cycle for Chrome

 Google revealed that its Chrome browser is switching to a quicker release schedule by delivering a new milestone every four weeks instead of the current six-week cycle (with a bi-weekly security patch). That's one way to speed up the singularity, but it's worth remembering that Mozilla also switched to a four-week Firefox cycle last year.

"As we strengthened our testing and release processes for Chrome, and deployed bi-weekly security updates to increase our patch gap, it became apparent that we could shorten our release cycle and deliver new features more quickly," said the Chrome team in their announcement.

Google, however, also admits that not everybody wants to move this fast—especially in the enterprise. For those users, Google is adding a new Extended Stable alternative to updates that come every eight weeks. This functionality will be made available to business administrators and Chromium embedders. They will still get security updates on a bi-weekly basis, but Google reports that "those updates will not include new functionality or any security patches that the 4-week alternative will get."

The new four-week period will begin with Chrome 94 in Q3 2021, and at this faster pace, we'll likely see Chrome 100 launch into a stable channel by March 29, 2022.