The writing has been on the wall for a while now, but the day has finally come. People are reporting that their old Manifest v2 extensions are being forcefully removed from Chrome, and now, people are left wondering: now what?
Google Begins Culling Manifest v2 Extensions From Chrome
User reports are beginning to trickle in from both Reddit and X, with people claiming that old extensions that rely on Manifest v2 have been, in Chrome’s words, “turned off.” The browser then recommends you uninstall it.
This shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise. A while ago, Google stated that it would remove support for Manifest v2 extensions from Chrome to usher in the third version. However, this new version limited extensions’ power, which meant that some apps that used those elevated privileges would stop working properly.
So, what are your options if you want to keep using Manifest V2 extensions? Your best bet is to move to another browser, but you must be careful about which one you migrate to. Many browsers these days use the Chromium framework, which Google uses to power Chrome. As such, any browsers that use Chromium may also block V2 extensions.
Some don’t; for example, Brave browser is fighting to keep Manifest V2 extensions alive. And Firefox isn’t built on Chromium, so if your extension works with that, it may be time to make the swap. Given how there are plenty of reasons to use Firefox over Chrome, it may be less of a struggle to get used to your new home than you might think.
