Category: Chrome 66

A surprising and almost unheard of fourth stable channel release for Chrome OS has landed.  The release to build 66.0.3359.203 (Platform version: 10452.99.0), based on Chrome 66, comes just days before the anticipated update to Chrome 67 in the Chrome OS Stable Channel.  It comes two weeks after a rare 3rd build in the channel.

The reasoning behind the fourth update is not known and the notoriously cryptic release notes from the Chromium team within Google aren’t much help in solving the mystery.  They merely state the generic, “This build contains a number of bug fixes and security updates“.  There isn’t even a link to the Git for the release.

A third update to Chrome 66 has arrived in the Chrome OS Stable Channel today for the majority of devices out there.  Build 66.0.3359.181 (Platform version: 10452.96.0) arrives about 10 days after the second build of Chrome 66 was made available to Chrome OS.  It is not too often that a 3rd build is made available in the Stable Channel unless a show stopping bug or security flaw was found.  In this case, the Chromium team hasn’t released any details on what was addressed.

The update appears to be rolling out widely.  My Google Pixelbook was updated to the build late last night.

After being first released last week, a second Chrome 66 build is now available in the Chrome OS Stable Channel today.  Build 66.0.3359.158 (Platform version: 10452.85.0) is available for most Chrome OS devices starting today and is the build that systems which are capable of running Android apps will be updated to run.

I can confirm that my Google Pixelbook was updated to build .158 earlier this morning when I used the chrome://help command to check for the update.

Just two days after the final beta build of Chrome 66 was released to the Chrome OS Beta Channel, that final build has now made its way to the Chrome OS Stable Channel as the official build.  The build is the same as the final beta, 66.0.3359.137 (Platform version: 10452.74.0) and it is available for most machines.  As is often the case with the first build in the Stable Channel, this build is not available for devices that are running Android apps.  There will be a second build, likely next week, which will be available for those Chromebooks.

My Pixelbook remains at Chrome 65 this morning as an example.

While there are a few new features in this new build, the focus is on improvements of existing features.  There is also a focus on security, as you would expect, with patches for the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities in this build too.

With Chrome 66 landing on all of the browser variants of Chrome this week, both desktop and mobile, the last update is with Chrome OS.  That is expected to happen next week on April 25th.  In the meantime, a fifth and likely final beta of Chrome 66 has arrived in the Chrome OS Beta Channel for those who have their devices in that channel.  The new build is 66.0.3359.117 (Platform version: 10452.69.0).

For those who have a machine in the Beta Channel, you should check for the update by typing chrome://help in the browser bar and clicking the Check for Update button.

After three beta builds over the past few weeks, the Chrome team has released the Chrome 66 update to Chrome for Android.  The new app is build 66.0.3359.106 and it will be landing on devices over the course of the next few weeks.  There are several changes in this update including most noticeably, a new modern UI look to the browser.

This new look rolled out via a flag change in one of the first betas of Chrome 66 and it is still a flag that you can enable.  That flag is chrome://flags/#enable-chrome-modern-design.  It gives everything a more rounded and polished look over the current, default UI.  Also, like the desktop updates and Chrome for iOS, you can now export your passwords in the mobile browser to save as a .CSV file.  Keep in mind though that the file is not encrypted so if anyone gets hold of it, they have your passwords.  Protect it!