Google’s G Suite offers a rich platform to build upon, allowing developers to create G Suite extensions for Docs and Sheets or apps powered by Drive. These extensions are currently available from the Chrome Web Store, but Google has decided to give them a new home in the G Suite Marketplace.
Between now and January 25, 2019, G Suite extensions will begin moving from the Chrome Web Store to the G Suite Marketplace. In the short-term, extensions will appear in both places, but will be removed from the Chrome Web Store soon after.
Despite the G Suite name implying business users only, the G Suite Marketplace is accessible for all consumers of Google services like Docs and Drive. For those commercial customers, however, G Suite Marketplace access and usage can be managed directly from the G Suite Admin Console.
The move appears to be focused on making extension discovery more intuitive, as users may not expect G Suite extensions to be found amongst Chrome’s extensions.
In order to streamline the add-on discovery experience for users and to facilitate add-ons publication, we are phasing out publication of add-ons to the Chrome Web Store. Once this process is completed, the G Suite Marketplace will be the sole add-on store; Chrome extensions will continue to be presented in the Chrome Web Store and are unaffected by this change.
Developers of existing G Suite extensions have until the January 25 deadline to migrate their products to the G Suite Marketplace. To help them do so, Google has provided helpful documentation on how to migrate editor add-ons and apps for Drive V2 and Drive V3. Thankfully, all migrating extensions will keep their ratings and reviews from the Chrome Web Store, and should not in any way affect end users.
Update 8/28: Over seven months after the originally stated migration date of January 25th, Google has announced that the final migration of G Suite-related extensions from the Chrome Web Store to the G Suite Marketplace is now beginning. This means you will no longer be able to find extensions related to Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms in the Chrome Web Store, as these are now only in the G Suite Marketplace.
If the developer of an extension has not yet migrated to the G Suite Marketplace, that extension will no longer be available for download. Google has given developers a firm deadline of September 9th to migrate their extensions. In the meantime, those “unmigrated add-ons” will continue to work for those who already have them installed.
Existing users of unmigrated add-ons will continue to be able to use them. However, if they uninstall Editor add-ons or Drive apps, they won’t be able to reinstall them. Moreover, if an existing user creates a template with one of these add-ons, any users who don’t already have the add-on installed won’t be able to use the add-on within the template.
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