Google will phase out Chrome support for old Manifest v2 extensions in 2023

Abner Li | Sep 23 2021 - 10:20 am PT

For the past few years, Google has been working on a new specification for building Chrome extensions. Manifest v3 became available earlier this year with Chrome 88. In launching, the company has been conscious of how big a shift the privacy-preserving aspects are, and today detailed the transition away from Manifest v2.

Google has a plan to phase out support for Chrome extensions built using the preceding specification. On January 17, 2022, the Chrome Web Store will no longer accept new browser extensions built using the old approach. Updates to existing ones can still be submitted.

A year later, in January of 2023, Chrome will no longer support Manifest v2 extensions with updates no longer possible.

As these dates draw closer, we will share more details around the Chrome version targeted for the change, as well as more information on how both extension developers and users may be affected. Refer to this page for more granular timeline information, which will be kept up to date as more exact dates and milestone details are available.

In the lead-up to Chrome 88’s launch this January, Google incorporated community feedback into Manifest v3, including changes to benefit ad blockers. The goal is to make extensions more secure, as well as performant, given how much browser and activity access they have traditionally possessed.

Recent months have seen additional mechanisms for the Scripting API, support for multiple static rulesets in the Declarative Net Request API, tab ID-based filtering, and session-scoped rules.

These changes were crafted with community feedback in mind, and we will continue to build more powerful extension API functionality as developers share more information about their migration challenges and business needs.

Moving forward, Chrome will add support for dynamically configurable content scripts, in-memory storage options, and other “new capabilities.”

If you have feedback on Manifest V3 or are encountering unique challenges with the migration process, please post to the chromium-extensions Google Group. The earlier issues are raised and the earlier feedback is given, the more options the team has to address them prior to MV2 phase-out.