Category: Chrome OS

A fifth and likely final Chrome 67 based build has arrived this morning in the Chrome OS Beta Channel.  Build 67.0.3396.69 (Platform version: 10575.52.0) was released this morning for the majority of devices in the channel and don’t be surprised if this is the build that we see land in the Stable Channel next week.

Chrome 67 is expected to be available in the Stable Channel on June 5th.  With that date only four days away, it’s likely best to consider this .69 build as a Release Candidate and not necessarily a beta build.

A surprising and almost unheard of fourth stable channel release for Chrome OS has landed.  The release to build 66.0.3359.203 (Platform version: 10452.99.0), based on Chrome 66, comes just days before the anticipated update to Chrome 67 in the Chrome OS Stable Channel.  It comes two weeks after a rare 3rd build in the channel.

The reasoning behind the fourth update is not known and the notoriously cryptic release notes from the Chromium team within Google aren’t much help in solving the mystery.  They merely state the generic, “This build contains a number of bug fixes and security updates“.  There isn’t even a link to the Git for the release.

The latest beta build of Chrome OS has landed in the Chrome OS Beta Channel.  Build 67.0.3396.57 (Platform version: 10575.47.0) is now rolling out to those of you who have a Chromebook in the Beta Channel and it represents the fourth Chrome 67 based build for the channel.

As a reminder, the Beta Channel is the last step before a Chrome OS build gets released to the Stable Channel.  The Stable channel is the channel most used by Chromebook users and is the officially supported channel for the platform.

The alchemy melding of Chrome OS and Android show no real signs of letting up and the latest example that is in the Chrome OS Canary Channel may be one of the most useful yet.  In the Canary Channel, when you open up the Files app to view files, you will now also see Android app related files with an appropriate flag enabled.  It means, for the first time, you can actually see the files associated with Android apps on your Chromebook all in one place.

The flag is -show-android-files-in-files-app and right now, it is only in the Canary Channel.  That means, roughly, that it is based in Chrome 69 which isn’t due out until September 11th of this year.  In other words, we’ve got a ways to go but the fact it is there is great news.  If you want to read the code commit, you can do that here.

As a general rule, for most Chromebook users, the default apps to open particular file types will do the job.  But sometimes you install an app, be it a Chrome OS web app or an Android app, and it takes over the behavior and becomes the default app for that file type.  Sometimes that’s good, sometimes that’s not so good.

Fortunately changing the default app to a new app for a file type is pretty easy in Chrome OS.  The trick is finding it because it is not in Settings like you would find in your Android phone.  In this How To, I’ll show you where you need to go in the Files app on your Chromebook to change the default apps.

The second build based on Chrome 68 has arrived in the Chrome OS Dev Channel this morning.  The new build is 68.0.3431.0 (Platform version: 10682.0.0) for those keeping score at home and is available on most systems in that channel.

For those of you new to Chrome OS, the Dev Channel is what would be considered Alpha builds and often have a lot of bugs and odd behaviors, but also include some of the newest features that will be eventually be coming to Chrome OS.  Sometimes the features slip or accelerate depending on stability.  It is not recommended that you run your primary Chromebook in the Dev Channel as you will certainly run into challenges are things simply not working as expected.