Google Chrome will soon close the last remaining loopholes that have allowed ad blocker extensions to keep chugging along.
This change has been a long time in the making. In 2019, it was rumored that Chrome would soon make ad blockers available exclusively to Enterprise users, and last year, the browser disabled uBlock Origin and other mainstream anti-ad extensions. Now, this final act is expected to end access to ad blockers altogether as Google completes its switch from the older Manifest V2 to the newer Manifest V3, which incorporates stricter controls for content blocking.
With Manifest V2, many ad blockers used the ‘webRequest’ API to intercept and cancel network requests directly. But Google now requires extensions to use the ‘declarativeNetRequest’ API in Manifest V3, which means the browser enforces predefined rules with stricter limits on how many rules they can add and how flexibly they can change them.
Google has already disabled most Manifest V2 extensions for Chrome through regular updates over the past two years. But until now, people could still take a few paths through Chromium to keep V2‑based ad blockers running.
Upcoming Chrome versions 150 and 151 will remove those flags and the remaining V2 logic. At this point, it’s expected that users will no longer be able to load older ad blockers, even with whatever hidden workarounds they’ve historically used.
Google claims Manifest V3 offers better security and performance by limiting what extensions can see and do across browsing sessions. But it’s also believed that reducing ad blocking benefits Google’s advertising interests, even if it drives users to other browsers.
On Chrome, users will need to rely on Manifest V3‑compatible tools like uBlock Origin Lite, which work under the new rules but cannot match the control offered by the original V2‑based extensions.
