Google Chrome formally discontinues uBlock. These Are The Best Alternatives To Continue Blocking Ads
Last year, Google Chrome changed many aspects of its supported extensions by moving to the Manifest V3 standard, which sought to increase security and performance by restricting many extensions. Among them was the popular ad blocker uBlock Origin, which stopped being available for installation at the end of 2024. Now they’ve made a new move to make it disappear forever.
In recent days, we have seen in several Reddit threads how users have found a new message in their browsers: uBlock Origin will stop working in those browsers where it is already installed. It is the natural next step that was expected after its installation was disallowed in Chrome.
This is all because of Manifest V3. While it brings many important improvements for us as users, limitations in the WebRequest API have made uBlock Origin unable to persist in the browser. This is the API that allows the extension to block advertising content before it loads.
Disabling the uBlock Origin extension is a gradual process, and if you install it within a few days, you will see how it stops working and the only option Chrome will give you is to remove it. This is something that affects other content blockers as well.
- Alternatives
There are several options to continue blocking ads. The first is to use uBlock Origin Lite, which has limited functionality but is compatible with Manifest V3. But you can also use Firefox, which already in 2022 has stated categorically that it will continue to allow the WebRequest API despite integrating Manifest V3 into its architecture.
Other options on the table include choosing a highly rated ad blocker like AdGuard or using a browser that natively integrates an ad blocker. This is where we find the Brave browser, which advocates preserving user privacy.
The war against ad blockers is clearly a reality. In the same Reddit thread where this information was shared, several users shared that they can’t surf the web without an ad blocker because of the aggressive ads they can find on some websites that literally hide the most relevant information.