Developer, beta or stable – deciding which Chrome channel to use depends largely on your tolerance of bugs and strength of desire to try the latest features and improvements.
But there is a way to get the best of both worlds: a perfectly rock-solid stable experience and access to the latest features.
Say hello to the Canary channel.
Canary – Curbing Curiosity
Also See: How to Change Channels on Chrome OS
Unlike the beta and dev channels, Google Chrome Canary installs separately – alongside the regular version of Chrome. It doesn’t change, modify of affect any files; nothing is shared between them.
This means that you can keep a stable version of Chrome for your regular day-to-day work, but also have a safe way – playground – to toy around with the latest features, changes and flags.
One caveat being that some settings altered on Canary will sync – but only if you sign in.
5 Reasons To Try Chrome Canary
- It’s safe – it doesn’t affect regular Chrome
- It’s fun – you get to try the latest features earlier
- It auto-updates – unlike Chromium snapshots, Canary is updated almost daily
- It’s useful – developers can work with newer Chrome features & APIs sooner
- It’s proper Chrome – all of Chrome’s features are present, including Flash and PDF reader
Download Chrome Canary
Google provide official Canary builds for Windows and Mac (sorry Linux users) and, once downloaded, it installs just like regular Chrome.
Canary uses a different coloured icon to that of regular Chrome, helping ensure that you don’t accidentally start the wrong one. This means you can pin it to your start screen, task bar or dock without creating confusion!