Google starts killing Manifest V2 extensions, which includes popular ad-blockers

[videogamesm12]

For the past few years, Google has been doing everything they can to prevent people from protecting themselves against the company's at best indifference and at worst hostility towards the safety and privacy of those trying to browse the internet. Behind the scenes they have been undermining the capabilities of popular ad-blockers by deprecating support for Manifest V2, the foundation of many of them like (formerly) Adblock Plus and (currently) UBlock Origin which rely on some of its features to effectively block ads.

Google's plan started in January 2022 when they first removed the ability to upload new extensions using Manifest V2 to the Chrome Web Store. Over the next few years they began additional aggressive user-facing anti-ad blocker campaigns on other services like YouTube. However, in the background the threat of killing the foundation of most ad-blockers loomed and Google was very willing to play the waiting game, so they did. Their plan began to bear fruits as recently as June 2024 when the development, canary, and beta versions of Google Chrome started displaying alerts that extensions with Manifest V2 would no longer be supported and directed users to install alternatives that use the gimped Manifest V3. This change has now hit the mainstream stable version of the browser as the page documenting this phenomenon on the UBlock Origin wiki was created just yesterday and news articles about this have just sprung up on publications like Bleeping Computer.

Starting with Google Chrome 127, there will be a warning for uBlock Origin (uBO) in your chrome://extensions/ page. [...] This is the result of Manifest v2 support being deprecated in favor of Manifest v3.

According to Google's timeline for the deprecation of Manifest V2, "in the coming months" they will also soon be disabling these extensions by default (forcing you to either turn it back on manually or install a gimped alternative with Manifest V3) and eventually these extensions will just be disabled outright altogether with no way to turn them back on. They do not provide an exact timeframe for when these events are to occur, so it is best assumed that it's going to happen extremely soon as they plan to complete the massacre of Manifest V2 by the beginning of next year and this section is from 2 months ago.

June 3 2024: the Manifest V2 phase-out begins​

Starting on June 3 on the Chrome Beta, Dev and Canary channels, if users still have Manifest V2 extensions installed, some will start to see a warning banner when visiting their extension management page - chrome://extensions - informing them that some (Manifest V2) extensions they have installed will soon no longer be supported. At the same time, extensions with the Featured badge that are still using Manifest V2 will lose their badge.

This will be followed gradually in the coming months by the disabling of those extensions. Users will be directed to the Chrome Web Store, where they will be recommended Manifest V3 alternatives for their disabled extension. For a short time after the extensions are disabled, users will still be able to turn their Manifest V2 extensions back on, but over time, this toggle will go away as well.

Like any big launches, all these changes will begin in pre-stable channel builds of Chrome first – Chrome Beta, Dev, and Canary. The changes will be rolled out over the coming months to Chrome Stable, with the goal of completing the transition by the beginning of next year. Enterprises using the ExtensionManifestV2Availability policy will be exempt from any browser changes until June 2025.

See our May 2024 blog for more context.

If you use an ad-blocker or are planning to do so, now is the time to begin looking at your options for staying protected. Here is a breakdown:

• At the very maximum, you have until June 2025 to continue using Manifest V2 extensions on Google Chrome as this is when Manifest V2 also gets killed for enterprises. To be treated like a big enterprise company until then, you'll have set a certain setting to a specific value in your computer's registry to enable it. This is only a short-term solution intended to buy you extra time.
  
  
• Many browsers like Brave Browser and Supermium use modified versions of the Chromium engine as their foundations, so their reliability in the long-term is up for debate as the Chromium engine will continue to evolve and change. While Brave and Supermium have made a committment to continue supporting Manifest V2 for as long as they can, eventually they may not be able to maintain support as the Chromium engine changes more and more and introduces potentially breaking changes that they will have to continually work around.
  
  
• Firefox and its forks are one of the few web browsers that are completely free from the grasps of Google's dirty grimey hands as they do not use the Chromium engine to function. They have committed to continuing to support Manifest V2 "for the forseeable future", according to a blog post from earlier this year. If you're worried about privacy and aren't too keen on using Firefox itself for whatever reason, forks like LibreWolf are also available.

 

[zrfv]

Many browsers like Brave Browser and Supermium use modified versions of the Chromium engine as their foundations, so their reliability in the long-term is up for debate as the Chromium engine will continue to evolve and change.

you can also try Ungoogled Chromium. It's chrome but with gugle telemetry completely removed. (google chrome source code is NOT full and does not include the telemetry part.)

 

[Telesphoreo]

I've been happy with Brave. The sync system is much better than Chromes. I moved a good while ago after hearing about Manifest v3 because I wanted to get used to a new browser that still would support v2. Eventually, we'll be at a point where if you want to block ads, you'll have to do it on a DNS level. It's not bad to setup your own VPN and block ads, but it's not free either, at least for a good enough VPS.

 

[zrfv]

Eventually, we'll be at a point where if you want to block ads, you'll have to do it on a DNS level.

That might happen if browsers really restricted its users and the mega over lords at google decided whats best for us. I don't see this happen in the future.

 

[Telesphoreo]

That might happen if browsers really restricted its users and the mega over lords at google decided whats best for us. I don't see this happen in the future.

I think doing it at a DNS level could be more popular in the end. The real question is how many people are going to want to change browsers and have to relearn a lot of things just for continued ad blocking? That was my scenario. I have things exactly the way I want them and every browser is slightly different. I doubt people will be setting up their own DNS servers but I'm sure we'll have more programs like AdGuard that install as an app and change your DNS settings. Blocking ads in browsers is better overall though because you can do it for platforms like YouTube, whereas DNS cannot.

 

[videogamesm12]

they will also soon be disabling these extensions by default (forcing you to either turn it back on manually or install a gimped alternative with Manifest V3)

This is exactly what has happened since then. Google announced yesterday that they are beginning to disable Manifest V2 extensions and that "over the following weeks" this will be rolled out for everyone using the mainstream stable version of the browser, but this has already been rolled out to the development, canary, and beta versions.

October 9th 2024: an update on Manifest V2 phase-out.​

Over the last few months, we have continued with the Manifest V2 phase-out.Currently the chrome://extensions page displays a warning banner for all users of Manifest V2 extensions. Additionally, we have started disabling Manifest V2extensions on pre-stable channels.

We will now begin disabling installed extensions still using Manifest V2 in Chrome stable. This change will be slowly rolled out over the following weeks. Users will be directed to the Chrome Web Store, where they will be recommended Manifest V3 alternatives for their disabled extension. For a short time, users will still be able to turn their Manifest V2 extensions back on. Enterprises using theExtensionManifestV2Availabilitypolicy will be exempt from any browser changes until June 2025. See our May 2024 blog for more context.

In those versions, you are actively blocked from installing Manifest V2 extensions from the Chrome Web Store, meaning you are required to download and install them manually. Those who attempt to will experience an error message on the Chrome Web Store that says the extension is no longer available because "it doesn't follow best practices for Chrome extensions".

​

At the moment, you can still manually download and install them yourself from other sources (through the developer mode) and it is possible to re-enable the extensions that may be automatically disabled, but Google's wording implies that this will not work for very long at all. For those of you who have enabled the enterprise setting mentioned above, you have less than a year to decide and make your choice for the long term.

If you are considering switching to a non-Chromium-based browser like Firefox or LibreWolf, you may also want to consider the process in which you get accustomed to the somewhat different environment of Firefox to be an additional bit of time that you need to take, meaning you may want to switch sooner rather than later so that you can be ready to ditch Chrome when the enterprise deadline kicks in.

 

[videogamesm12]

I decided to see for myself what the current state of Google Chrome is like from firsthand experience instead of using information gathered from other sources. This is where things currently stand if you are using the Google Chrome browser. Brace yourself, this is going to get slightly technical. As of the making of this post, all mainstream versions of Chrome have code implemented for what I've mentioned above, but are merely disabled based on internal flags set in the browser itself.

The mainstream stable (129.0.6668.101) and beta (130.0.6723.44) releases only contain two flags, which are #extension-manifest-v2-deprecation-warning and #extension-manifest-v2-deprecation-disabled. The dev (131.0.6768.4) and canary (131.0.6773.0) releases contain an additional flag called #extension-manifest-v2-deprecation-unsupported. These flags control how the browser and Chrome Web Store treat Manifest V2 extensions.

Flag #extension-manifest-v2-deprecation-warning controls the warnings you get in both the browser's extensions menu and the Chrome Web Store. In virtually every publicly available release of the browser across the development cycle, this flag is enabled by default. When enabled, the Chrome Web Store adds a warning for every Manifest V2 extension's page which tells you that the extension will soon not be supported for not following what Google thinks are the best practices for their browser's extensions (namely, anything that goes against their way of making money). In addition, the "Manage extensions" page (located at chrome://extensions) adds additional notices that specific Manifest V2 extensions you have installed will soon be unsupported and politely offers you to find alternatives that use the Manifest V3 standard instead. It does not prevent you from installing new extensions. When disabled, the browser and the Chrome Web Store do not show those warnings.

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Flag #extension-manifest-v2-deprecation-disabled controls your ability to install new Manifest V2 extensions and whether any existing extensions will be disabled on the next start up. In every publicly available release except for dev and possibly canary, this flag is currently disabled by default. When enabled, the Chrome Web Store disallows you from installing new Manifest V2 extensions entirely and the browser disables all Manifest V2 extensions on the next start-up. The "manage extensions" page more forcefully suggests you remove the extension altogether, but you can still re-enable the extensions manually. When attempting to re-enable Manifest V2 extensions, it will prompt you for confirmation and once again suggests to just remove the extension instead. When this flag is disabled, none of the aforementioned behavior occurs and you are able to install new Manifest V2 extensions.

​

Flag #extension-manifest-v2-deprecation-unsupported also controls your ability to install new Manifest V2 extensions and whether any existing extensions will be disabled on the next start-up. In every publicly available release, this flag is currently disabled by default. It is almost functionally identical to #extension-manifest-v2-deprecation-disabled, however the primary difference is that when enabled it also disables your ability to re-enable automatically disabled Manifest V2 extensions. This appears to be the final stage in Google's process of deprecating Manifest V2 in all of their browsers.

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The effects of #extension-manifest-v2-deprecation-disabled started reaching the mainstream audience (it has yet to hit the mainstream stable release as you know) earlier this week with technology-oriented content creators like Mental Outlaw and more recently SomeOrdinaryGamers publishing videos about it. Interestingly, their videos show that the canary release of the browser have this behavior enabled by default even though from my personal testing that this does not appear to be the case, so I suspect that it might be a toss-up of A&B testing going on that determines this default value in canary. As functionality for irreversibly disabling Manifest V2 extensions entirely is only 2 major versions away from entering the mainstream stable release, it's best to assume that what I've just mentioned will happen to you very soon.

 

[videogamesm12]

USDOJ vs. Google​

Earlier this year, the United States Department of Justice found Google to have illegal monopoly in the search engine and search advertising markets. This case initially started in October 2020 and has since been considered on par with the case against Microsoft in 1998. This is relevant to the topic of this thread as one of the many remedies suggested by the government is for Google to sell the rights to their Chrome browser and possibly the Android operating system. Google has until the 20th to file their counter.

Some people are proposing the idea that Google selling the rights could lead to this entire timeline being halted in its tracks depending on who gets the rights. I personally think this is unlikely. Google has already implemented the code necessary to carry out the final stages in their outlined timeline and aim to completely kill off support by June 2025 at the very maximum, and that's for enterprises. Although Google was ruled to be a monopoly this year, the gruelingly slow pace of bureaucracy means that by the time any of what has been proposed takes place, this timeline would in all likelihood be said and done long ago. It's also unrealistic for whoever picks up the pieces to re-implement something that already had support killed for them.

Even if that could happen, that still depends entirely on who gets the rights. If a company like Meta picks up the pieces, the exact opposite could also occur - Meta may choose to accelerate the timeline since their business is all about data collection and extremely intrusive advertisements. If a company like Microsoft picks up the pieces, the state of the browser could get a lot worse in more ways than one, and at that point Manifest V2 is the least of your concerns.

I'll be paying some attention to this case and I'll give updates as they occur, but don't expect me to get everything right as I am far from a legal expert.

Now really is the time to consider your options​

It is now December 2024, and those who are using Chrome are running out of time. The mainstream stable branch (131.0.6778.140) that everyone uses now has code that will eventually permanently disable Manifest V2 extensions without a means of re-enabling them, however at this moment in time it still allows you to install them without issue. However, this will not last long at all. The beta branch (132.0.6834.46, just one major version away) no longer allows you to install new Manifest V2 extensions unless you set the flag I mentioned above to "disabled".



Judging by the rate in which these major updates keep going, by next month at most, the stable versions of the browser will soon start giving you trouble when trying to install uBlock Origin, and it's only going to get worse from there. By the next year, Google will start setting their foot down and preventing you from re-enabling them as well. The June 2025 deadline is most likely going to be the last nail in the coffin and will come within a few months after they kill support for mainstream consumers.

TL;DR - Mainstream Chrome users have less than a month before they start struggling to install Manifest V2-based ad blockers like uBlock Origin. Even the most generous timeframe suggests that support won't last 6 more months, and that's for enterprises. They should start considering their options now.