Chrome’s new extension API, Manifest V3, is no longer a phantom threat. Hundreds of ad-blocking extensions, including the AdGuard Browser extension, will now work in this new reality.
The Manifest V3 wave has been building steadily but inevitably. When Google first released a document describing the new API in 2018, the developer community erupted in outrage. They mentioned, “We didn’t sit back either, publishing several articles outlining the potential negative consequences of Manifest V3 implementation and even expressing optimism that things won’t turn out so badly”.
Despite widespread backlash, Manifest V3 and Chrome 88 Beta were released in late 2020s. Since January 2022, adding new plugins relied on Manifest V2 to the Chrome Web Store has become almost an impossible task. The final phase of the launch is to occur very soon. Starting off from January 2023, all extensions on Manifest V2 will cease to function, including those previously added to the Chrome Web Store.
Work on the extension began in the middle of 2021. The new APIs of Manifest V3 caused a lot of headaches during development, according to the developers. While they were able to create a functional content blocker predicated on Manifest V3, they admit that it has constraints, which Manifest V2 content blockers did not have.
One of the main issues with Manifest V3 is that it seeks to impose a fixed limit of 330,000 rules for all Chrome extensions. Every extension has total access to all 30,000 rules.
