Can I run Chrome Beta side by side with regular Chrome? [closed]

Question

I'd like to have both Chrome stable and Beta running simultaneously so I can test my site in both of them.

I do know that I can run Chrome Canary side by side with another Chrome, but I don't want to do that right now.

When I try running Beta while Stable is running it just quits immediately.

Answer 1

Yup, you can do this as long as you're okay keeping the profiles for your beta and stable separate.

These instructions below are for Mac, but you can probably work out the Windows equivalents.

• Download the Beta.
• Extract the app to Downloads
• Rename the beta app to Google Chrome Beta.app and move into Applications folder.
• Run this in terminal:
  • /Applications/Google\ Chrome\ Beta.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --user-data-dir=/Users/$USER/chromebetaprofile
  • The path after --user-data-dir= is where your profile for Chrome Beta will live. Move it somewhere else if you like, but use an absolute path (~ doesn't work here).
• You are now running Chrome Beta side by side with stable.
• Optional: If you'd like to avoid going to the command line, you can make an .app with the user-data-dir baked in with appify or the Appify-UI

Now to get a nice icon to differentiate:

• Open https://github.com/alrra/browser-logos/blob/master/src/chrome-beta/chrome-beta.png
• Click the Download button
• Select the Beta app in Finder > Applications
• Hit cmd-i for the file details
• Click the icon in the top left, it should give you a blue focus highlight
• cmd-v to paste in the new icon.

Aw yeah. Canary, Beta, Stable in peace and harmony: