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For several years now, Google has wanted to kill Chrome's current extension system in favor of a more limited one, creating more restrictions on filtering extensions that block ads and/or work to preserve the user's privacy. The new extension system, called "Manifest V3" technically hit the stable channel in January 2021, but Chrome still supports the older, more powerful system, Manifest V2. The first steps toward winding down Manifest V2 were supposed to start January 2023, but as 9to5Google first spotted, Google now says it delayed the mandatory switch to Manifest V3 and won't even have a new timeline for a V2 shutdown ready until March.
The old timeline started in January 2023, when beta versions of Chrome would start running "experiments" that disable Manifest V2. This would move to the stable version in June, with the Chrome Web Store banning Manifest V2 extensions in January 2024. The new timeline is that there is no timeline, and every step is now listed as "postponed" or "under review."
In a post about the delay, Chrome Extensions Developer Advocate Simeon Vincent says, "We’ve heard your feedback on common challenges posed by the migration, specifically the service worker’s inability to use DOM capabilities and the current hard limit on extension service worker lifetimes. We’re mitigating the former with the Offscreen Documents API (added in Chrome 109) and are actively pursuing a solution to the latter." After adding that every step of the timeline is on hold, Vincent said, "Expect to hear more about the updated phase-out plan and schedule by March of 2023."
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