Chrome’s two-week stable cycle starts branching this week

Google announced in March that Chrome would move from a four-week to a two-week release cycle starting with Chrome 153. The table in that post puts the M153 branch on Monday, August 17, 2026, beta promotion on Wednesday, August 19, and stable on Tuesday, September 8. That is the first stable on the new cadence, across desktop, Android, and iOS.

What changes and what does not

A new beta and a new stable will ship every two weeks. Dev and Canary channels are unchanged. Extended Stable, the enterprise channel introduced in 2021, stays on its eight-week cycle. Google said smaller, more frequent stables should be easier to debug after release. Weekly security updates between milestones continue.

What Google told enterprises

Administrators who do not want a two-week fleet cadence can keep devices on Extended Stable through Chrome Browser Cloud Management or Group Policy. Google also said each beta will now ship three weeks before its stable, and asked admins to test there. ChromeOS will keep extra platform testing before a milestone reaches Chromebooks; Google said it will publish more detail on managed ChromeOS timing.

• First two-week stable: Chrome 153, September 8, 2026
• This week: M153 branch (August 17) under the new table
• M150–M152: still on the old four-week schedule

Takeaways

• The policy was announced in March; the operational start is this branch week
• Consumers on Stable get the new cadence automatically with 153
• Extension and intranet testing windows get shorter unless you use Extended Stable

Source: Chrome for Developers