Work disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak are causing Google to delay upcoming releases to the Chrome browser and Chrome OS.
“Due to adjusted work schedules at this time, we are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases,” the company wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.
A week ago, Google recommended that all staff in North America work from home until April 10 to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, which has now infected more than 7,700 people in the US. The company’s parent, Alphabet, employs more than 100,000 staffers worldwide with most of them based in the US.
The good news is that Google’s Chrome team will still be rolling out security patches to fix vulnerabilities in the company’s software. On Wednesday, the browser was updated to address 13 flaws. “Our primary objectives are to ensure Chrome continues to be stable, secure, and work reliably for anyone who depends on them,” the company added in today’s blog post.
The next version of the browser, Chrome 81, was originally slated to roll out yesterday. Among the new features was a web-based Near-Field Communications (NFC) reader and support for augmented reality over an existing API. But for now, Chrome 81 is only available as a beta release.
The disruptions from the coronavirus are also creating delays for app releases on the Google Play Store. Android Police noticed that Google staff has been telling developers the review times for their apps to get approved can now take more than seven days.
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