Google is finally ready to begin phasing out Manifest V2 extensions in Chrome and its Web Store. The process will follow the timeline that was first announced in November 2023, with the first signs of Manifest V2 removal starting to appear in preview versions of Chrome as soon as June 3.
In the official Chromium Blog, Google reminded users that despite popular belief, the idea behind Manifest V3 was not to kill content blockers but to improve security, privacy, and performance in the extension ecosystem.
The road to Manifest V3 was a bumpy one, and after significant user and developer backlash, Google was forced to implement some important changes and even postpone the enforcement of Manifest V3. Community feedback resulted in Google implementing support for user scripts, increasing the number of rule sets, allowing DOM (Document Object Model) APIs, and more. As a result, a lot of popular extensions, namely ad blockers, are already on Manifest V3.
The process of phasing out Manifest V2 extensions will kick off on June 3, 2024, with Google Chrome showing a warning banner for customers running Beta, Dev, and Canary builds with Manifest V2 extensions. The message will notify that some of those extensions will soon be out of support. Also, outdated Manifest V2 extensions will lose their badges in the Chrome Web Store.
Killing Manifest V2 is a long and slow process that won"t happen overnight. Chrome will direct customers to the store and recommend Manifest V3 alternatives for extensions that no longer work. Also, there will be a grace period during which the browser will allow disabled extensions to be turned back on. However, Google will eventually remove this option.
Users in Chrome Stable will get all those changes over the next few months. Google plans to finish the process by early 2025. Enterprise customers will have the option to avoid Manifest V2 changes with a special policy until June 2025.
You can learn more about the end of the road for Manifest V2 extensions in Google Chrome on the official Chromium Blog. Microsoft Edge, which is also powered by Chromium, has its own timeline for Manifest V2 extensions, but most of it is still TBD. Firefox also has a similar one.
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