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Google is sticking with its plan to phase out older "Manifest V2" Chrome extensions starting next month, which could impact the popular ad blocker, uBlock Origin.
Google will start disabling extensions built with the older V2 framework on June 3, beginning with users of Chrome’s beta versions, including from the Dev and Canary channels.
"If users still have Manifest V2 extensions installed, some will start to see a warning banner when visiting their extension management page—chrome://extensions—informing them that some (Manifest V2) extensions they have installed will soon no longer be supported,” the company wrote in a blog post.
Google will disable V2 extensions "gradually in the coming months" for Chrome stable users with the aim of "completing the transition by the beginning of next year." The goal is to push all users to alternative and newer Chrome extensions built with the Manifest V3 framework, which the company says is more secure and private.
“For a short time after the extensions are disabled, users will still be able to turn their Manifest V2 extensions back on, but over time, this toggle will go away as well,” the company added.
(Credit: Google/PCMag)Google has spent years pushing the IT community to drop Manifest V2. Although Manifest V3 is designed to protect users from invasive data collection, the same framework has also received complaints for its requirements, which can undermine ad blockers, such as uBlock Origin.
But in Thursday’s blog post, Google notes that "over 85% of actively maintained extensions in the Chrome Web Store are running Manifest V3, and the top content filtering extensions all have Manifest V3 versions available—with options for users of AdBlock, Adblock Plus, uBlock Origin and AdGuard.”
Indeed, uBlock Origin also adopted Manifest V3 with the release of uBlock Origin Lite. But Google’s effort to phase out the older Chrome extensions is expected to ensnare the original uBlock Origin extension, which currently has 37 million users and still uses the V2 framework.
The looming phaseout has caused many uBlock Origin users on Chrome to worry they’ll be forced to install a less effective ad blocker. Others like AdBlock also note that the V3 Manifest can prevent it from filtering out ads through automatic real-time updates.
“Currently, our filter lists are updated automatically —often multiple times a day. So if you see an ad that has managed to get around the ad blocking filter, it’s typically taken care of right away because of these updates. Manifest V3 has made it so that we’ll no longer be able to do these types of updates in the same way,” it said in a blog post.
In response, Adblock has developed a workaround called “differential filter list updates,” which promises to keep the filter lists up to date, despite the restrictions from Manifest V2. "Users likely won’t notice a difference in ad blocking quality."
To further steer users and developers to Manifest V3, Google also plans on removing the “Featured” badge—a symbol indicating high-quality—from Chrome extensions that use Manifest V2. Only businesses using “ExtensionManifestV2Availability policy” will be exempt from losing support for their Manifest V2 Chrome extensions, which will last until June 2025.