On 31 August 2026, Google removed the last extensions still built on Manifest V2 from the Chrome Web Store, uBlock Origin included. The affected listings disappear from the catalogue and from search results: they can no longer be installed or reinstalled, even through a direct link. For extension developers and for teams that relied on these tools, the Manifest V2 era is over on Chrome.
What Google removed, and when
The removal took effect in late August 2026 and covers every extension that stayed on Manifest V2. Their listings were pulled from the store, affected developers were notified, and no new installation is possible from the storefront. This step was the last in a transition spread over several years, begun long ago with the gradual deprecation of the old format.
Manifest V3 shifts network filtering to a declarative model
To grasp the stakes, look at what Manifest V3 changes technically. Manifest V2 allowed dynamic request blocking through the webRequest API, able to intercept and modify traffic on the fly. Manifest V3 imposes declarativeNetRequest instead: rules are declared in advance and applied by the browser itself, without the extension observing every request.
{
"id": 1,
"priority": 1,
"action": { "type": "block" },
"condition": {
"urlFilter": "||ads.example.com^",
"resourceTypes": ["script", "image", "xmlhttprequest"]
}
}
This declarative model strengthens privacy and limits the execution surface of extensions. In exchange, it caps the number of rules, which explains the reduced capabilities of blockers under Manifest V3.
What happens to already-installed extensions
The behaviour depends on the browser version running on the machine.
| Chrome version | Manifest V2 extensions |
|---|---|
| Chrome 138 or earlier | Stay installed, but without updates or reinstallation from the store |
| Chrome 139 and later | No longer supported: Manifest V2 extensions become inactive |
In other words, a retained extension keeps working until the browser crosses the Chrome 139 mark, then stops acting at the next version bump.
The exits: uBO Lite, Firefox, Brave
Several fallbacks coexist. On Chrome, uBlock Origin’s developer, Raymond Hill, offers uBlock Origin Lite, Manifest V3-compatible but deliberately more modest in capability because of the constraints of declarativeNetRequest. Firefox continues to support Manifest V2 and the full version of uBlock Origin. Brave, for its part, self-hosts uBlock Origin, AdGuard, uMatrix, and NoScript outside the Chrome Web Store.
Worth watching: the enterprise policies that extended Manifest V2 (the ExtensionManifestV2Availability key) have also reached their end. Teams that deployed internal Manifest V2 extensions should audit their estate and plan a port to Manifest V3 before Chrome’s next version bump.
Removing the last Manifest V2 extensions does not end content blocking on Chrome, but it moves it under the rules, and the limits, of Manifest V3.
What to take away
The Chrome Web Store no longer distributes any Manifest V2 extension. Existing installations survive as long as the browser has not passed Chrome 138, then stop working. Alternatives exist: uBlock Origin Lite on Chrome, the full uBlock Origin on Firefox, self-hosted extensions on Brave. None reproduces the exact capabilities of the old model. For developers, the question is no longer whether to migrate to Manifest V3, but how to work within its constraints.
Manifest V3 has long been framed as a frontal attack on ad blockers. The reality strikes me as more nuanced: the declarative model has real security and performance merits, but the rule quotas genuinely penalise exhaustive filter lists. For a professional site, the concrete stake is elsewhere: pages should be tested under uBlock Origin Lite and under Firefox, because more permissive blocking on one side and stricter blocking on the other changes what visitors actually see. — Simon Janvier
Source: the official Manifest V2 deprecation timeline, on Chrome for Developers.
