Chrome to Disable Various Extensions Including uBlock
Chrome to Disable Various Extensions Including uBlock
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Chrome to Disable Various Extensions Including uBlock
According to a statement released on the Google Developer Blog, the Google Chrome team has decided to reverse the deprecation plan for Manifest v2. This plan was paused in December 2022 due to significant opposition from developers.
Google’s new decision is to disable Manifest v2 support for Google Chrome starting from June 2024. This means that extensions must use Manifest v3 to continue functioning.
According to Google’s timeline, starting with the release of Google Chrome version 127, Manifest v2 protocol will be disabled. From this version onwards, all extensions using MV2 protocol will be automatically disabled. Chrome Web Store will prohibit the publication of MV2 extensions, and users won’t be able to download MV2 extensions from the store.
For enterprise users, there is an option to temporarily restore MV2 protocol using the ExtensionManifestV2Availability policy, which is valid for one year. After June 2025, it cannot be re-enabled.
Impacts on Ad Blocker Extensions:
Taking the popular ad-blocking extension uBlock Origin as an example, developers have already provided a v3 version. However, due to functional limitations, v3 is not the primary version.
MV3 provides more static rule sets but cannot use dynamic rules and may not support custom filtering features. Therefore, the name of uBlock Origin v3 is uBlock Origin Lite, indicating that it is a version with limited functionality. Users may have to rely on the Lite version in the future.
Impact on Other Extensions:
The major issue lies in the fact that the Chrome Web Store has thousands of extensions, some of which have long ceased to be updated. While discontinued updates do not necessarily render them unusable, after the deprecation of v2 in June next year, these extensions will be delisted, and users won’t be able to install them anymore.
For some users, it is necessary to back up their extensions now. At least, in the future, they can still load them in developer mode on older Chrome versions, ensuring they are not left without the ability to use their extensions completely.
In summary, this is unwelcome news, marking the end of the era of freedom experienced with MV2.
