A fifth Chrome 68 based build has arrived in the Chrome OS Dev Channel, the platforms alpha build channel. Build 68.0.3440.25 (Platform version: 10718.22.0) is the new version and available for the majority of Chromebooks that are in the channel.
For those that are new to Chrome OS, the Chrome OS Dev Channel is considered the Alpha channel for the platform. Normally this channel has a fair number of bugs or performance issues as it gets refined prior to be releasing into the Beta channel for broader testing.
The release of a fifth Chrome 68 build into the Dev Channel is a little bit of a surprise. Chrome 67 has now been released to the Stable channel but the Beta channel remains at Chrome 67 too. Normally this is incremented up to the next version, 68, while the Dev Channel goes two revs up to the Stable Channel, which at this point should be Chrome 69. Why the delays is not known but it likely comes down to a significant bug or performance issue found late in the alpha testing process for Chrome 68. Delays like this aren’t uncommon to be fair but given that Chrome OS is expected to be updated to Chrome 68 on July 31st of this year, the amount of time for beta testing is being consumed at this point.
All that said, this could well correct itself today or tomorrow as the Chromium team generally releases next-version updates early in the week (i.e. Chrome 67 to Chrome 68) while incremental updates to a current build happen late in the week.
