The uBlock Origin ad blocker is considered one of the best extensions in its segment, but this coming summer it may cease to exist in its current form: Google announced plans to stop supporting the Chrome Manifest V2 API and completely switch to Manifest V3, which is incompatible with existing ad blockers.
Image source: google.com/chrome
Extensions based on Manifest V2 will begin to be disabled in Chrome Dev, Canary, and Beta builds as early as June 2024 with the release of Chrome 127 and later—Google has not announced a timeline for deprecating the old API in the stable branch of the browser.. Interfaces for interacting with extensions determine their capabilities. Google began working on Manifest V3 at the end of 2018 and intended to release it in 2019, but the radical changes caused dissatisfaction among developers, and the company decided to postpone the implementation of the changes.
The mechanism of the Web Request API. Image source: blog.chromium.org
One of the most controversial innovations in Manifest V3 is a change in the way the chrome.webRequest API works – this function will now be used to collect data rather than block it. Blocking will be carried out using the chrome.declarativeNetRequest API. Google's justification for this change is that extensions that use the Web Request API essentially gain access and the ability to modify all network request data – theoretically making changes to everything the user does on the Internet. This mechanism is used by uBlock Origin and other ad blockers.
How the Declarative Net Request API works. Image source: blog.chromium.org
With the Declarative Net Request API, extensions do not need access to all network information – they register rules with the browser that determine what it should do when it encounters certain types of requests. This mechanism is available in both Manifest V2 and Manifest V3, but in the latter it becomes the only way to change network requests. Thus, refusing the Web Request API will make it impossible for uBlock Origin to work in its original form.. The difficulty is that, as the extension community has established, the Declarative Net Request API is not a functional clone of the Web Request API. Google listened to the criticism and made several changes to the alternative mechanism, which theoretically will allow ad blockers to exist in a new form.
As a result, those who want to use uBlock Origin in the traditional format have to abandon Chrome in favor of Firefox. However, the author of this blocker has released uBlock Origin Lite, an updated version of the extension that is compatible with Manifest V3. Only users can judge its effectiveness.