When uBlock Origin stops working on Chrome soon, you'll have 2 options

According to the Google Chrome Web Store, uBlock Origin is now listed with the following warning: “This extension may soon no longer be supported because it doesn’t follow best practices for Chrome extensions.”

uBlock Origin has been one of the most popular Chrome extensions for privacy and security because it does a fantastic job of blocking ads, cookies, warnings, and overlays. The extension has been around for some time and is available for most browsers.

But Google has other plans. Said plans involve disabling all Manifest V2 extensions and that includes uBlock Origin, which has over 40 million downloads to date. 

Also: Google Chrome’s new rules for extensions may disable your favorite browser tools

But Google has other plans: To disable all Manifest V2 extensions, including uBlock Origin. Despite the vast popularity of this extension — 40 million downloads to date — Google doesn’t want it around.

According to Google, however, the Manifest V3 framework will still allow developers to create ad blockers for Chrome but they must follow the Manifest V3 guidelines. 

There are a few silver linings here. The first is that uBlock Origin will continue to work on other browsers, such as Firefox and browsers not based on Chromium. The second is that you can always use the uBlock Origin Lite version, which does adhere to V3. The only caveat: The lite version is a mere shadow of the full version and is less effective at dealing with websites that use anti-content blockers.

The third silver lining is that a group has been formed — called the WebExtensions Community Group — with the goal of specifying a model, permissions, and a common core of APIs for web browser extensions. 

According to uBlock Origin developer Raymond Hill, there is no plan to transition uBlock Origin to uBlock Origin Lite in the Chrome Web Store. On that front Hill said, “I consider uBO Lite to be too different from uBO to be an automatic replacement. You will have to explicitly find a replacement to uBO according to what you expect from a content blocker. uBO Lite may or may not fulfill your expectations.”

If you depend on uBlock Origin, you have two options:

Also: The best secure browsers for privacy: Expert tested

While I would suggest switching to a different browser, such as Arc or Opera, the only problem with any Chromium-based browser is there’s no telling if the V2 extensions will continue to function. Should that come to fruition, the only option would be to switch to a non-Chromium-based browser, such as Firefox, Safari, Pale Moon, or LibreWolf.