In a fresh development, this goes hand in hand with the switch from Manifest V2 to Manifest V3, a newer and presumably more secure architecture for the widely used browser. Google has been working for some time on a way to block old browser extensions in Google Chrome.
In a fresh development, by the end of June, however, even that will no longer work. A future drop of Chrome will block all add-ons still based on Manifest V2. As early as March 2025, this rendered some extensions—including widely used ad blockers such as uBlock Origin—suddenly unusable, even though it was still possible to access them with a workaround.
In a fresh development, it’s not entirely clear whether this will be permanently disabled in Chrome 150 or 151, as there are differing analyses on this point. In Chrome 150, it still seems to be possible to enable the flag, at least to some extent. The decisive factor here is the “ExtensionManifestV2Disabled” flag in Google Chrome’s code, reports PiunikaWeb.
In a fresh development, it will be significantly more difficult to use ad blockers like uBlock Origin. Doing so would require using developer settings and making changes that would make the browser less stable. Here’s what we know for sure: once the change goes live, there’s no going back.
The report highlights that (At least, that’s the official stance of the publisher.) This fresh architecture is intended to make the browser more secure, faster, and prevent rogue browser extensions from interfering deeply with a user’s system. The blocking of ad blockers is not a direct move by Google but rather a side effect of the planned switch to Manifest V3.
In a fresh development, the fact that it can also hamper ad blockers with the same move is just a bonus that Google is unlikely to be too upset about. Given that there have been repeated instances of extensions posing a serious threat, it’s understandable that Google wants to prevent that from happening.
As part of the ongoing story, however, there’s no guarantee that the same functionality will be available. Developers have the option to adapt existing extensions to Manifest V3 and modify them so that they still work.
The report highlights that we’ve highlighted ad blockers that will still work with Chrome, including uBlock Origin Lite (the successor to uBlock Origin with fewer functions but fully compatible with Manifest V3). If you’re still relying on uBlock Origin, it’ll soon be time to switch over to something else.
In a fresh development, this article originally appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT and was translated and localized from German.
The report highlights that after studying communication science, she went straight into a job at PCMagazin and Connect Living. Since then, she has been writing about everything to do with PCs and technology topics, and has been a permanent editor at our German sister site PC-WELT since May 2024. Laura is an enthusiastic gamer as well as a movie and TV fan.