Chrome Android browser gets its own Canary channel for very early public testing

Google is now giving Android owners a way to check out new versions of its Chrome web browser earlier than in the past with its new Canary channel. This will allow early adopters and developers faster access to new features and improvements before they are rolled out to all Chrome users.

PC and Mac Chrome fans might be aware that Google has offered the Canary versions of the browser for quite some time, but now Android fans can finally access those kinds of early builds. Google does warn that the Canary versions may not be for everyone:

These builds are shipped automatically with no manual testing, which means that the build can be unstable and may even stop working entirely for days at a time. However, the goal is for Canary to remain usable at all times, and the Chrome team prioritizes fixing major issues as quickly as possible.

See also: How to speed up Chrome for Android26

New Canary builds are planned to be released every weekday, and Google could even launch new versions on the weekends sometime in the future. If you do sign up for the Canary channel, be aware that because it is updated so frequently it may eat up a lot of data. Google estimates that the updates could add up to about 100MB of downloads per week, so folks with limited data plans might want to stay away from it, or only update to new versions with a Wi-Fi connection.