Google introduced the new Manifest V3 format for Chrome extensions over two years ago, with the goal of phasing out the current Manifest V2 format within a few months. That process has taken much longer, but now there’s a new timeline for the end of older Chrome extensions.
Manifest V3 is the new software platform for Chrome extensions, intended to make extensions faster, more reliable, and more secure. However, it was missing many features that some extensions required, so the phaseout of Manifest V2 was put on hold. Google has been working to fill the gaps over the past year, and now there are “currently no open issues considered a critical platform gap.”
Google has resumed the countdown clock for the end of Manifest V2 extensions. The company said in a blog post, “We will begin disabling Manifest V2 extensions in pre-stable versions of Chrome (Dev, Canary, and Beta) as early as June 2024, in Chrome 127 and later. Users impacted by the rollout will see Manifest V2 extensions automatically disabled in their browser and will no longer be able to install Manifest V2 extensions from the Chrome Web Store. Also in June 2024, Manifest V2 extensions will lose their Featured badge in the Chrome Web Store if they currently have one.”
Many popular Chrome extensions should already be updated to Manifest V3, but there’s no way to check from an extension’s Chrome Web Store page. You can check if an installed extension is updated, though—open the chrome://extensions page and look at the “Inspect views” section for an extension. If you see “service worker,” then it’s a Manifest V3 extension, and other labels (usually “background page”) indicate the extension has not yet been updated.
Unfortunately, the migration to Manifest V3 will be the end for at least a few browser extensions. It usually isn’t much work to update an extension, but some extensions have been abandoned on the Chrome Web Store for years and might not get an update before the shutdown enforcement.
Google also said in the blog post, “We will gradually roll out this change, gathering user feedback and collecting data to make sure Chrome users understand the change and what actions they can take to find alternative, up-to-date extensions.”
Source: Chrome Developers
