Google Chrome is closing the loopholes that let old ad blockers keep working

Google Chrome version 150 and 151, expected in late June and July, respectively, will cut off support for the last remaining workarounds for running older ad blockers, 9to5Google reports. Google phased out support for ad-blocking extensions built for Manifest V2, like uBlock Origin, in 2024. At that point, most Chrome users either switched to newer Manifest V3 ad blockers like uBlock Origin Lite or switched to a different browser.

Google is now removing the final bits of code referencing its previous Manifest V2 extensions platform, so only ad blockers that work on the Manifest V3 platform will work in Chrome version 151 onward.

Google developer Devlin Cronin commented on the Chromium commit calling for the removal of the last references to Manifest V2, explaining:

MV2 extensions are no longer allowed in any supported version of Chrome, and we are removing support for them and the associated functionality. We won’t be able to provide / maintain this functionality indefinitely due to the complexity and tech debt, as well as the security risks it entails (we’ve actually found a number of bugs that are specific to MV2 lately). Of course, other browsers can continue supporting these if they so desire.