With Manifest V3 reaching full feature parity with Manifest V2, today, Google has shared a timeline for the deprecation of MV2 extensions. The developers who haven’t updated their extensions from Manifest V2 to V3 should check the timeline and act before they stop working in Chrome for users.
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What is Manifest V3?
Manifest V3 is the new version of the Chrome Extensions platform. Google made it available for Chrome extensions with Chrome 88 earlier this year.
With the new Manifest, Chrome moved towards Declarative Net Request API from blocking version of Web Request API.
Removing the blocking ability of WebRequest API makes ad blockers ineffective. Chrome maker said they’re making ad blockers safer, but not killing them.
While the company claimed the move brings more privacy, security, and performance when users use the MV3 extensions, the UBlock Origin developer said the third iteration of the extension platform means, the death of UBO.
Google said MV3 allows them to remove remotely hosted code.
Chrome Manifest v2 extensions deprecation timeline
On January 17, 2022: Chrome Web Store no longer accepts new Manifest V2 extensions, however, developers will be allowed to push updates to them.
In January 2023: Manifest V2 extensions will stop working and won’t run in Chrome, developers may not be able to push updates to them even with enterprise policy.
The firm Tech giant promises to share more information on how this affects the users and developers as the dates get nearer.
You can check the MV2 support timeline here.
Manifest version 2 is deprecated error
The change already affects local extensions installed in Chrome using Developer mode.
For such extensions, the chrome://extensions page displays an errors button with the following message informing the user that
“Manifest version 2 is deprecated and support will be removed in 2023. See https://developer.chrome.com/blog/mv2-transition/ for more details”.
This manifest version 2 is deprecated warning applies to Chrome, brave, and Micorsoft Edge browsers also. The warning may irritate and annoy you.
Will you switch to Firefox now or in 2023, due to Chrome supporting Manifest V3 and phasing out Mainfest V2 extensions? Let us know in the comments below.
More on Chrome extensions:
After May 1, all off-Store Chrome extensions will be hard-disabled
Know All Permissions Given to Installed Chrome Extensions
Opera 55 improves Chrome Extensions Install Experience on Web Store
