14 DAY TRIAL // Because developers have asked so nicely, Google has decided to extend the deadline for Chrome extensions until May.
The company announced last year that it would no longer allow Chrome extensions that were not in the Web Store to work on the web browser. The move was supposed to take place in January, but it was pushed back. Now, it looks like the last concession that developers get is May.
The restrictions have a good reasoning as Google has explained on several occasions that it simply seeks to cut down the number of malicious extensions that Windows users are using. By making it mandatory for developers to run their extensions directly through the Web Store, Google is making sure it gets to analyze the code and weed out all the tools that don’t meet the company’s security needs.
“Some developers have requested more time to complete this transition, so we've decided to extend the window until May 1 before we start enforcing this policy for the Windows Stable channel. As a reminder this policy will only apply to Windows Beta and Stable channel users. You can continue to use off-store extensions on Windows Dev and Canary, as well as on Mac, Linux and Chrome OS. Developer and enterprise policy use cases are similarly unaffected,” reads a message signed by Erik Kay, engineering director with the company.
Unless developers register their extensions in the Chrome Web Store by May 1, they will be automatically disabled. “If you register after the deadline your users will need to manually re-enable or re-install your extension to regain functionality,” Kay writes.
As he mentioned, this will only affect tools introduced into the stable and beta channels of Chrome, running on Windows. This means that users of the Dev or Canary channels, as well as those who run Chrome on Mac, Linux or Chrome OS, will not be affected at all.
Google has mentioned before that it is only implementing the change for Windows users because that’s where the most complaints come from.
The new directive from Google was announced back in November, when the company said that it needed to take measures to protect Chrome users from malicious and unwanted software. The Internet giant had actually started to enforce the policy for Chrome Beta channel on Windows and soon found a lot of developers complaining about the changes, asking for more time.