Google Chrome Removes Last Manifest V2 Flags, Blocking Legacy Ad Blockers

Google Chrome has removed the final workarounds that allowed legacy Manifest V2 extensions to function, effectively ending support for classic ad blockers like uBlock Origin. A recent Chromium commit deletes the "kExtensionManifestV2Disabled" flag, which was the last remaining toggle keeping these older extensions operational, according to Hacker News.

"This marks the end of an era for popular ad-blocking tools on Chrome, as the browser fully transitions to Manifest V3."

The transition to Manifest V3 imposes significant restrictions on extension capabilities, particularly for content-blocking and privacy-focused tools, Hacker News reported. Google Chrome also removed the kAllowLegacyMV2Extensions feature flag from the Chromium codebase, a leftover used for testing unpacked Manifest V2 extensions on older builds, according to linuxiac.com.

linuxiac.comChrome Removes Legacy Manifest V2 Flag, Further Blocking Classic uBlock Origin

"Since no supported Chrome version supports Manifest V2 anymore, the flag is being cleaned up."

This cleanup affects classic uBlock Origin and other legacy extensions that relied on the old extension system, linuxiac.com noted. The removal of these flags represents the final step in Google's phaseout of Manifest V2, which began years ago and has gradually restricted the capabilities of ad-blocking extensions in favor of the more limited Manifest V3 framework, as reported by Hacker News.