Google Opens Chromium Dev Channel To Android Platform

by Joshua Gulick — Thursday, April 30, 2015, 12:38 PM EDT

Developers have a new tool for testing their websites on Chrome for Android, thanks to a Dev channel Google just released. Google has long made the Dev channel available to ChromeOS, Linux, Mac and Windows. Now, Android is part of the crew.

The Dev channel ends up being a two-way street. Google gets your direct feedback on its pre-release Chrome features so it can weed out bugs before the version goes mainstream. The benefit for you is that you can see how the upcoming version of Chrome will handle your website. You’ll get an early look at potential problems, but you also get a sneak peek at features that you might want to take advantage of.

Obviously, this version of Chrome for Android is going to occasionally have problems and isn’t meant to be something you rely on for important tasks – that’s what the official version of Chrome is for. “Life on the Dev channel can be rocky at times, so on Android it installs side-by-side with any other version of Chrome you have on your device,” Google’s Chrome Technical Program Manager, Jason Kersey, said in a blog post.

Google plans to update the dev channel weekly and has already put up a feedback form you can use to report bugs or other issues.

Tags: Android, Chrome, Google, (nasdaq:goog), dev channel

Joshua Gulick

Josh cut his teeth (and hands) on his first PC upgrade in 2000 and was instantly hooked on all things tech. He took a degree in English and tech writing with him to Computer Power User Magazine and spent years reviewing high-end workstations and gaming systems, processors, motherboards, memory and video cards. His enthusiasm for PC hardware also made him a natural fit for covering the burgeoning modding community, and he wrote CPU’s “Mad Reader Mod” cover stories from the series’ inception until becoming the publication editor for Smart Computing Magazine. A few years ago, he returned to his first love, reviewing smoking-hot PCs and components, for HotHardware. When he’s not agonizing over benchmark scores, Josh is either running (very slowly) or spending time with family.