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Google officially introduced a new standard for Chrome extensions at the end of 2020, known as Manifest V3, which is not popular with everyone. Now the company is delaying plans to block extensions that haven’t been updated yet.
Manifest V3 is the new software platform for Chrome extensions, which claims to be faster and more secure than the previous Manifest V2 base, but the migration has been controversial. Some APIs have been removed and replaced with less useful alternatives, mainly affecting content blocking extensions like uBlock Origin and AdGuard. Google planned to start turning off Manifest V2 extensions in January 2023, and then roll out the change to everyone (excluding large organizations) in mid-2023.
Google has now posted a statement on the Google Group for Chromium Extensions, explaining that the transition is now on hold. The announcement read: “We are postponing any January experiments to disable Manifest V2 in Chrome pre-release channels and featured badge changes in the Chrome Webstore, and will also evaluate all subsequent milestones.” The company plans to have a new timeline ready sometime before March 2023.
The delay means extension developers have more time to plan a transition to Manifest V3. There are also many extensions in the Chrome Web Store that will never be updated to V3, either because they are too difficult to port or because the original creators are no longer working on them, which will now stick around for a bit longer.
Microsoft is also revising its timeline for compatibility with Manifest V3 in the Edge browser, which was previously scheduled to reflect Google’s release. Mozilla Firefox is still in the process of adding support for V3 extensions and has no plans at this time to phase out V2 extensions.
Sources: Google, Microsoft
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