Manifest V2 sunset January 2023

[Aleksej Todorovic]

Hi all,

As we all are familiar, in January 2023 MV2 extension will stop working. Will this affect all Chrome versions, even tho Chrome <88 does not support MV3 architecure? Will this affect only new versions?

Essentially, my question is: What will happen to my users that do not have Chrome version above 88?

Best,

Aleksej

[hrg...@gmail.com]

MV2 extensions will keep working on all Chrome versions that support MV2, but no new MV2 installations will be possible because the CWS will unlist them all once the MV3 transition is over.

[Aleksej Todorovic]

So, you are saying that my users will continue working even after January 2023? How valid that information is?

How I understood Google's post (https://developer.chrome.com/blog/mv2-transition/), is that the browser will no longer run MV2 extensions even for existing users.

Referring to: "The Chrome browser will no longer run Manifest V2 extensions. Developers may no longer push updates to existing Manifest V2 extensions." -

[hrg...@gmail.com]

That statement obviously refers to Chrome versions released after the deadline.

Chrome version released in the past cannot be modified, so they will continue to run MV2 extensions as usual.

[Cuyler Stuwe]

It'll be interesting to see people choosing to forego security updates / etc. just because they're trying to stick to an older version of the browser that actually runs what users want to run.

When you look at things holistically like this, there goes MV3 destroying its own "increased security" argument. 🤔

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[PhistucK]

> Chrome version released in the past cannot be modified, so they will continue to run MV2 extensions as usual.

Not sure this is true, they have plenty of ways, however, I do not think they would apply to removing support for manifest version 2.

☆PhistucK

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[hrg...@gmail.com]

> Chrome version released in the past cannot be modified, so they will continue to run MV2 extensions as usual.

Not sure this is true, they have plenty of ways, however, I do not think they would apply to removing support for manifest version 2.

There are only 2 ways of doing that. Either they hardcode a date in the Chrome executable or they hardcode a URL which returns a date.

The first approach is really unwise because that prevents them from changing the date if they need to.

The second approach is too easy to hack by adding a filter to your firewall.

But even if they decided to do any of that (which would be quite silly), there's always a version before which that mechanism wasn't implemented.

[PhistucK]

Chrome checks stuff with Google, updates components, updates field trial definitions and percentages (for many years), so they can change stuff even in older versions if they wanted to.

Yes, you can add a filter to your firewall for those and they might not change (or maybe they will, since it might calculate enabling the feature based on the percentage and randomisation).

(A version before field trials existed would probably be too old to be usable with the modern web and you can in theory just add a command line flag to change the field trial definition for that specific feature anyway)

Like I said, I doubt manifest version 2 is behind any such mechanism.

☆PhistucK

[hrg...@gmail.com]

The way to keep an old version of Chrome with no auto-update is by installing a standalone version. Those versions are not part of the stable release channel; they remain fixed.

[PhistucK]

Chrome versions - yes, but internal stuff can still change should they wish to change them (usually done for emergencies), regardless of a version being standalone or not. I believe they can disable specific extensions (if they find them to be malicious) remotely, too, for example.

Chromium, however, is more deterministic, I think. Its ties to Google, internal updates and so on are far looser (then again, you lose certain features that may be paramount to the functionality of the extension, like signing in to Chrome and the identity APIs).

☆PhistucK

[Aleksej Todorovic]

I think this is a great discussion because we obviously have certain disagreements in terms of activities Google might take.

I can think of a few very valid use-cases why they should keep supporting old browser versions:

1. Some users use Windows XP, older versions of Chromebook, etc. that do not support newer (>88) versions of Chrome. As a developer, I would want to support these users in the future.

2. Company policies to use specific versions of Chrome due to various reasons that are based on their internal policies.

I am aware that new installations might be forbidden in the future, but it does not make sense to "stop working" existing users on MV2 extensions.

I hope we will get an official statement from Simeon or someone else that might have more information regarding this topic.

[PhistucK]

Not really, I assume and believe, like you, that they will not disable manifest version 2 in old versions, as I wrote many times already. No disagreement there.

I am just saying that using an old version does not guarantee zero behaviour changes in general. If they do change old version behaviours, it would likely only be for security reasons, like removing malicious extensions or disabling a feature with actively exploited vulnerabilities.

So no disagreement regarding manifest version 2, only regarding the "old versions never change" argument.

☆PhistucK

[Aleksej Todorovic]

Is there a way to get an official statement from Google regarding this topic?

[hrg...@gmail.com]

I wouldn't worry if I were you. There's no effective way Google can shut down MV2 extensions; there are too many variants of the Chrome browser. There's MS Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi and dozens of others.

Even if Google wanted to shutdown MV2 extensions for good, which is unlikely, they can only affect their own browser and only those versions in which they included a retroactive shutdown mechanism.

If people want to keep using MV2 extensions in the future, they will be able to. There's no way to stop that.

[Aleksej Todorovic]

Well, I think there is always a way to disable MV2 extensions if they decide to. The question is are they actually going to disable them or they will continue working on the existing userbase?

[Aleksej Todorovic]

Any update on this topic?

I was searching on the web for what happened to MV1 extensions and existing users when MV2 was introduced and I could not found.

Altho, there is a  post on chromium back in the days: https://blog.chromium.org/2013/02/updates-to-manifest-v1-chrome-web-store.html

Developer documentation as well: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv2/manifestVersion/

[Aleksej Todorovic]

Any updates?? I’m still not sure what will happen.

[Sudip]

Current versions of Chrome support automatic uninstalls remotely triggered by the CWS. 

I have seen 3rd party extensions getting uninstalled from my browser automatically, only to find out later that the extension was banned by CWS for not complying with google policies. 

So even old versions of Chrome may be forced by CWS to uninstall MV2 extensions once those are banned by CWS MV3 policies.

[hrg...@gmail.com]

That would only be possible for extensions that were never migrated to MV3.

The question here is whether old extension versions running in old browser versions will keep working.

[Sudip]

If your old browser version is still compatible with CWS sync service, then the sync with CWS works both ways:

- CWS pushing new extension versions to browser

- CWS forcing the browser to delete extensions banned by CWS. Extensions not migrated to MV3 will get banned by the CWS.

[PhistucK]

That is just speculation.

@Simeon Vincent - please, shine a light on this.

☆PhistucK

[Aleksej Todorovic]

I agree it would be best if Simeon give us more information.

[Sudhanshu Kumar]

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