Google is set to remove all remaining add-ons that use version two of the Chrome manifest from the Chrome Web Store on August 31, as part of the company’s efforts to transition to the third version of the manifest. The Chrome manifest defines the capabilities and resources available to add-ons written using the WebExtensions API. Although already installed add-ons will remain on users’ systems, they will no longer receive updates and cannot be reinstalled if removed from the browser.
Last week, Chrome 150 was released, removing support for the kExtensionManifestV2Disabled flag. This flag previously allowed users to install add-ons with a second version of the manifest from the Chrome Web Store. The upcoming release of Chrome 151, scheduled for July 28, will further remove the AllowLegacyMV2Extensions setting, which enables the manual download of add-ons based on the second version of the manifest in developer mode.
The decision to discontinue support for the second version of the Chrome manifest comes as part of Google’s initiative to create more secure and high-performance add-ons. However, this change has caused dissatisfaction among users as it translates the webRequest API into read-only mode. The webRequest API previously allowed users to connect their own handlers with full access to network requests and the ability to modify traffic in real-time. In place of the webRequest API, the third version of the manifest introduces a limited API called declarativeNetRequest, which provides access to a built-in filtering engine that independently processes blocking rules, preventing users from using their own filtering algorithms.