Google has been on the offensive in recent months, revealing (and delaying) a handful of plans to modernize Chrome’s architecture - and one such plan, set to come into effect soon, could stop you using some of your favorite browser extensions.
This particular initiative will see Manifest V2 tools stop working by early 2025 as part of the company’s effort to enhance security, privacy and performance.
The change will mean Chrome extensions will need to comply with the Manifest V3 specification, and any extension developers failing to keep up-to-date will pay the price by losing users.
Manifest V2 Chrome extensions set to lose support
The good news is that more than 85% of the actively maintained extensions available in the Chrome Web Store are running Manifest V3, including a number of content filtering extensions. The specification previously came under fire for its impact on ad blockers, but Chrome expanded its functionality in response to criticism.
For those on the Chrome Beta, Dev and Canary channels, a warning banner on chrome://extensions will be shown from June 3. Google will also start removing the ‘Featured’ badge from any Manifest V2 extensions.
The phase-out process will continue with the gradual disabling of Manifest V2 extensions, and for a limited period, users will still have the option to re-enable their V2 extensions. As part of the transition, Chrome will also guide users towards V3 alternatives in the Web Store.
The company summarized: “The changes will be rolled out over the coming months to Chrome Stable, with the goal of completing the transition by the beginning of next year.”
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