We’ve shed many tears over Manifest V3, but that didn’t stop us from rebuilding our extension to meet its requirements. Now we present you with a beta version that effectively blocks ads and trackers and seamlessly manages social widgets, banners and video ads.
We’ve worked hard to make sure that most users won’t notice any difference in the way the extension works compared to MV2. However, some sacrifices have been made in the form of reduced features and rule limits. Here’s a look at what’s changed, both externally and internally:
- Improved UI: We have switched to a UI similar to our MV2 extension
- Notifications: Users may receive frequent notifications due to new API rule limits. The notifications will look like this:
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No filter updates: Since some of the rules are now applied in DNR form, we can’t update filters on request, only through the full process of updating the extension along with the review in the stores. Therefore, the options Auto-update filters and Check filters update are no longer available in the Filters tab.
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Modifier limitations: There are a row of limitations when it comes to modifiers. Details about the restrictions are described on GitHub.
Certain features did not survive the transition to MV3:
- The Tracking protection tab (formerly known as Stealth mode) is missing the Cookies section, along with Self-destruction of first-party cookies and Self-destruction of third-party cookies since we cannot set the lifetime of cookies using declarative rules.
- Phishing & malware protection is no longer included in general settings. Relevant filters can now be enabled in the Security tab.
- We are working on new versions of the Filtering log and Statistics sections that are not included in this beta. Therefore, the Clear statistics option is no longer available in Additional settings. Statistics will be back in the release version.
You can test the new extension by installing it from the Chrome WebStore.
If you want to stay loyal to the MV2 version, it’s still available. However, the MV3 version will replace the MV2 extension when Google phases it out, as mentioned in the Chrome blog.