Chrome will begin phasing out old extensions with Manifest V3 next week

Google is continuing the transition from Manifest V2 to Manifest V3 in Chrome. The rollout will begin next week and will first land on pre-stable channel builds.

Back in November 2023, Google revealed a timeline for its phase-out of Manifest V2. Now the company has announced that it is ready to begin the process.

In case you don’t know what a Manifest is, it is something that gives your Chrome browser everything it needs to know about an extension. This includes information like the extension’s name, its version number, which permissions it will use, and the versions of the browser it can be used with. A new Manifest can restrict APIs and features an extension can use.

The transition from V2 to V3 will start on June 3 for the Chrome Beta, Dev, and Canary channels. As for the stable channel, these changes are scheduled to arrive at the beginning of 2025.

The phase-out is a big deal as Chrome extensions that run on V2 will no longer be supported. Initially, this included several of the most popular ad-blocking extensions. However, Google says that 85% of actively maintained extensions in the Chrome Web Store are already running Manifest V3. Google also points out that AdBlock, Adblock Plus, uBlock Origin, and AdGuard all have a V3 version that’s currently available.

Although the phase-out will start next week, the tech giant won’t disable V2 extensions immediately. In the announcement, the company states it will begin disabling V2 extensions in the “coming months.” Before this happens, however, users will see a warning message on their extension management page directing them to download the V3 version of their extensions.