Google Chrome Prepares to warn users before disabling Manifest v2 extensions

Google has started working on showing warnings for Chrome users running Manifest V2 extensions ahead of June 2024, considering the proposed timeline will disable the MV2 extensions in beta and Dev and Canary versions. Chrome as of now, looking to alert that MV2 extensions are no longer supported and ask to remove or replace them with similar extensions from the Chrome Web Store.

In case you don’t know, Google has switched to MV3 Extensions for Chrome from MV2 for performance and security reasons.

Starting June 2022, the Chrome web store no longer accept new MV2 extensions in Chrome Web Store. However, developers are allowed to update their MV2 extension in the Web store. Beginning June 2024, Chrome 127 and later, Chrome will begin disabling MV2 extension in Chrome versions like Dev, canary and Beta.

Users affected will notice Manifest 2 extensions being automatically disabled in the Chrome browser and it is also not possible to install MV2 extensions from the Chrome Web Store.

Soon, Chrome will show no longer supported warnings for Manifest V2 Extensions in beta, dev and Canary versions

That being said, as this month is May and with June nearing, Google has started working on an experiment to alert Chrome users running MV2 extensions in pre-release versions with an MV2 deprecation Panel that shows a warning or two, on the chrome://extensions page saying these extensions may no longer be supported as well suggests to remove or replace with similar extensions from Chrome Web Store.

“This extension may soon no longer be supported. Remove or replace it with similar extensions from Chrome Web Store“

These may soon no longer be supported

The MV2 extension warnings displayed on chrome://extensions are still being prepped and may not be final, if you’re using MV2 extensions, it is better to disable and find and install similar extensions from the Web Store.

[Extensions] Show MV2 deprecation panel for experiment. Show Manifest V2 deprecation panel in chrome://extensions when: – Manifest V2 experiment stage is ‘kWarning’, and – 1+ extensions are affected by the Manifest V2 deprecation This CL only adds the variables and functions needed to decide whether to show the panel. Next CLs will add the content and correct formatting.

Chrome stable users can still run Manifest V2 extensions

As of now, Chrome stable users running MV2 extensions may not see any warnings, this may change in the future. While new extensions can’t be created with MV2, existing ones can still function (for now) on stable Chrome. Google is focusing on the initial disabling of MV2 extensions in developer versions, giving developers time to migrate their extensions to the newer Manifest V3 standard.

In other news related to Chrome, Google is working to make memory saver more aggressive to give better memory savings and also browser will show notification when CPU usage is high.