How to change your software channel on Chrome OS and the Chrome Browser

One of the greatest strengths of Chrome OS is its stability. Whenever I hand someone a shiny new Chromebook, I know they won’t have any problems. However, for those that like to tinker — like me — there is the option to test new features for Chrome at the possible expense of stability. You can switch between the different Chromebook software channels if you want. Here’s what each one is and what to know before you change.

What are the Chrome channels?

Each Chrome browser and Chrome OS device can be on one of four software channels: the stable channel, the beta channel, the developer channel, and Canary.

• A stable channel is the default channel everyone uses. If you didn’t know what a Chrome channel was before reading this article, your device is on Stable. Stable is what rolls out after software changes have been thoroughly tested, and this software is the most — wait for it — stable.
• Beta channel transitions between Developer’s Wild West and Stable’s sweet normalcy. This is where you can try new things before most users get them without dealing with as many bugs. Don’t get me wrong; Beta is still buggy, just less so, because the most critical bugs are worked through before it arrives.
• The developer channel is where new features and software changes are added to Chrome builds. This channel lets you test the latest tweaks and the track that has the most bugs. If you’re using a Chromebook for critical work or your only computer, the Dev channel is not for you. If your Chromebook is a secondary machine, you might enjoy playing around with it.
• The Canary channel is highly experimental, updates frequently, and should not be used on your only computer if stability or reliability is required because things are untested and break easily. I don’t recommend it unless you like submitting bug reports and digging through its changelogs daily. On Chromebooks, Canary requires you to enable Developer Mode, wipe your Chromebook, and then enter a particular command in the Chrome OS Developer shell.

What you need to know before moving between channels on a Chromebook

Moving from Stable to Beta or Developer channels is simple, but going the other way takes more effort. Reverting to the Stable requires an entire system wipe — it Powerwashes the Chromebook and erases all local data from the device. Chrome OS treats it like any further system update when switching up to the more dangerous levels because they are higher versions.

Even if setting up a Chromebook only takes 5 minutes, it’s not something anyone wants to be unprepared for, so if you’re going to start dabbling with the Beta and Developer channels, back up your local data and make sure you keep things backed up. Google Drive is built right into the Files app for a reason!

How to try Chrome Beta, Dev, or Canary on a Windows, Mac, or Phone

The desktop and app versions of the Google Chrome browser make each channel a separate app, so you can have both stable Chrome and Chrome Beta installed on the same laptop so long as you have room and enough RAM for both.

• Download Chrome Beta is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android via Google Play and iOS; the iOS beta is currently full and not accepting new users.
• Download Chrome Dev is available for Windows, Mac, and Android via Google Play.
• Download Chrome Canary is available for Windows, Mac, and Android via Google Play. (Sorry, Linux!)

These versions install in the same 4-click way that stable Google Chrome installed when you first got your computer, but they have different icons so you can distinguish between them. They also update automatically, just like the stable version — they update more frequently to address the latest bugs and push out new features for testing. While trying new channels isn’t quite as hard on other platforms as on Chrome OS, keep in mind that Chrome Canary can encounter some pretty impressive bugs since it’s untested and unstable, so I highly recommend regularly backing up your computer if you’re going to leave it installed.