Google started 2024 with two important missions for its Chrome browser. First, he wanted to remove cookies altogether and replace them with a new system that promised to be more private and secure. Last month, Google had to reverse course and keep third-party cookies in Chrome, due to controversy generated by the new system.
Now it’s the turn of another controversial move: the end of many Chrome extensions. Today the company confirmed that it has launched the plan to adopt the new Manifest V3, which will end in early 2025; The ball is now in the court of users and developers.
Concretely, change means Manifest V2 end of support, the tools available to extension creators. They will be replaced by Manifest V3, a new version that imposes serious limitations on what extensions can do; a change that was officially made in the name of security and privacy, and not without reason.
Browser extensions have always been one of the greatest potential dangers for the user. They have access to every page we visit, including information such as credit card numbers or private messages; In the last decade alone, hundreds of these malicious extensions have been discovered. To combat this threat, browsers like Chrome already impose limitations and features like permissions, but this is not enough.
Manifest V3 not only looks to close security holes, it also adds new features such as support for playing content in the background. But the most controversial part undoubtedly lies in the new limitations that the extensions will haveand this leads many, directly, to stop working.
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It escapes no one that the “collateral victims” of this change are Google’s great enemies: ad and tracker blockers. Manifest V3 has been classified as “harmful to privacy” by the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), one of the largest digital rights NGOs in the world; claims that the new system limits the capabilities of privacy extensions that block trackers. The EFF denounces a “conflict of interest”, since Google itself is responsible for 75% of the trackers on the million most visited pages on the Internet; In other words, this suggests that Google has an economic interest in preventing these privacy extensions from working.
To defend itself, Google reacted by increasing the limits that this type of extensions will have, which will now be able to have 330,000 static blocking rules, and will be able to add an additional 30,000 dynamically during navigation. He further promised that blockers will be approved faster in the Chrome extensions store.
This olive branch seems to have yielded some results; Google says 85% of extensions already have Manifest V3 version. These include versions of some of the most popular ad blockers, which work despite their limitations. However, this number should be contextual: it only refers to extensions that are actively maintained, so many extensions that haven’t received updates in years will stop working.
This seems to have been enough for Google to start the migration process. From June 3, users of V2 extensions will start to see an end of support notice, but will be able to continue using them. These old extensions will also start disappearing from the Chrome Store.
Little by little, over the next few months, these V2 extensions will be disabled of all Chrome installations automatically; For a while, users will be able to re-enable them, but there will come a time when they will be removed completely. When this happens, Chrome will display a link to the store so the user can find similar extensions. The only exception is businesses, which may continue to use V2 extensions due to their specific needs.
Overall, Google’s goal is to complete this transition early next year; the process is therefore expected to take approximately six months. The big question is whether Google has done enough to convince users and developers not to switch to other browsers like Firefox, which will maintain support for Manifest V2 while adopting the new V3.
