Request MV2 Manifest Hosting (Skip Redirect)

Brave Feature Requests
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1

I would like to request mv2 manifest hosting for the following extension:

Name: Skip Redirect

GitHub Link: https://github.com/sblask-webextensions/webextension-skip-redirect

Chrome Web Store Link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/skip-redirect/jaoafjdoijdconemdmodhbfpianehlon

This extension has stopped working since the Brave update to version 1.92.134. It’s very useful for me—and likely other users—to bypass ad redirect links that require waiting for a timer to expire. So far, there are no other extensions in the Chrome Web Store with a similar feature. Please consider adding it to bvbrave://settings/extensions/v2, similar to the four V2 manifest extensions (uBlock Origin, AdGuard, NoScript, and uMatrix), so I don’t lose my go-to extension. If that’s not possible, are there any comparable alternatives? Thank you, and I’d appreciate your help.

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@Muhammad_Iqomul_Haq

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Thank you for your response. But I’d like to ask the Brave team: Is there a possibility that, in the future, some MV2 manifest extensions—beyond the four already hosted by Brave—might be added? Many users have complained about this issue because some MV2 manifest extensions stopped working after the Chromium update to version 150.0.7871.63 in Brave version 1.92.134—whether installed independently via the Chrome Web Store or through the developer channel. I’d like to suggest to the Brave browser development team that MV2 manifest extensions still needed by users be made compatible with Chromium updates 150, 151, and beyond. This would enhance Brave’s appeal as the only Chromium-based browser capable of supporting more MV2 Manifest extensions and help retain Brave users, preventing them from switching to Gecko-based browsers that strongly support MV2 Manifest extensions. I apologize if this is too long, but I hope this request will be considered so that MV2 Manifest extensions can continue to exist in Brave. Thank you very much.

4

@Muhammad_Iqomul_Haq

You are OK (no apology necessary).

@Mattches of Brave Support, can answer your questions … after the weekend, is my best guess.

My own observations:

Brave supporting a ManifestV2 extension as some desire, means something close to:

  • ensuring the browser still exposes the MV2 APIs it needs,
  • testing that extension against each Chromium update,
  • fixing regressions when Chromium internals change,
  • potentially adding compatibility shims if APIs disappear entirely.

If an extension depends only on APIs already preserved for another supported extension, then adding it might require very little additional work. But if it uses obscure or deprecated MV2 APIs, supporting it could require maintaining even more Chromium patches indefinitely.

The four extensions Brave currently supports:

  • AdGuard AdBlocker
  • NoScript
  • uBlock Origin
  • uMatrix

They all share characteristics that make them unusually important:

  • They’re privacy/security tools.
  • They have large, established user bases.
  • Their functionality is difficult or impossible to reproduce fully under Manifest V3.
  • Their authors have been active participants in discussions around browser extension capabilities.

That makes the maintenance burden easier to justify, but for other extensions, long-term engineering and maintenance costs need support from the authors and the users.

20260704 Saturday UPDATE

tophf is working on ViolentMonkey ManifestV3

Screen Shot 2026-07-04 at 2.28.33 AM
Screen Shot 2026-07-04 at 2.28.33 AM1540×948 131 KB

H/T @e7b6143f0312273c004b

Despite the prior:

The official Violentmonkey website states that a Manifest V3 rewrite “is not planned for the foreseeable future” due to the “considerable effort involved and the potential for losing existing features.”

So, encouraging the authors of the extensions to update to ManifestV3, seems to be a good cause.

5

@289wk

I am also effected with the problems above because of a false decision from the Brave Dev Team. It should have taken over every Extension not only a few ones because it ended up disabling the following extensions even if they are loaded as unpacked with active developer mode:

image
image1231×161 18.2 KB

I am now back to Brave 1.91.178 where things have worked and I completely deactivated the updates to not get this overwritten. I’ll stay with that version until MV2 stays strongly full supported. If not, I’ll be one out of many users going away from Brave to geko-based browsers.

If MV2 is stated to be supported, then it has to be a lifetime support from my pov.

This is my personal meaning to what’s currently happening within brave and I hope that the direction get’s corrected :slight_smile:

6

Stop spamming this crap on every MV2 post. No one cares, they already know. Dropping backward compatible support randomly is a dumb and bad change. People everywhere literally joined Brave to avoid this MV2 migration, so they already know that’s happening. Spamming this information on every post about it does nothing but just muddy the discussion.

Users do not require MV3. Forcing MV3 on the users is a Google move of “we know better than you”. But you do not know better and we do not need more of a walled garden of APIs for browser extension “for our own good”.

This entire team needs to take a page from Linux on long term support and backwards compatibility. Clearly the only thing that matters to them is how easy they can get away with minimal development and effort.

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@289wk @Mattches

Thank you for the explanation. I’d like to offer a few suggestions for the Brave browser development team to consider regarding this matter:

1. I suggest that in the future, if there are major changes in Chromium updates that have a significant impact on users (such as the Brave 1.92.134 update, Chromium: 150.0.7871. 63), the team could publish a blog post or share information on social media regarding the issues that may arise and possible solutions to prevent user frustration and misunderstandings, as well as to discourage users from switching to other browsers.

2. I’d like to request that the Brave team establish an independent extension store outside of Brave, similar to Microsoft Edge (https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/Microsoft-Edge-Extensions-Home). I believe this is crucial, given that Microsoft Edge—a Chromium-based browser like Brave—has its own extension store, allowing users to have more alternatives beyond the Chrome Web Store, which is heavily controlled by Google’s business policies. If Brave still wants to maintain distance from Google’s influence—which is inconsistent with the idea of developing a non-business-oriented browser—then I strongly recommend that Brave create its own extension store, managed independently by the team without any influence from Google.

3. This idea might be a little crazy, but I’d like to see Brave gain compatibility for installing Firefox add-ons (.xpi) in the future. This idea is based on the fact that some Firefox browsers and their derivatives can install Chrome extensions (though not perfectly). Examples of such browsers include Zen Browser, Floorp, Firefox Nightly, and Firefox Developer Edition, using the CRX Installer add-on (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/crxinstaller/) along with settings in about:config. I’ve tested this method on Zen Browser and successfully got the Chrome extensions I needed to work there. Other browsers, such as Orion Browser, can run three different types of extensions within the same browser (https://orionbrowser.com/extensions). I know this method is very complicated, so it’s okay if it’s not feasible. I just want to share my experience, and who knows—maybe this will become a reality in the future.

4. I greatly appreciate Brave’s efforts to continue supporting MV2 manifest extensions through independent hosting. However, I’d also like to offer some feedback regarding the number of supported extensions. Some MV2 extensions—beyond the four popular ones—have a large user base in Gecko-based browsers. In my opinion, maintaining just the four popular privacy-focused MV2 extensions still doesn’t fully meet the needs of a broader user base, especially advanced users who understand concepts like privacy, tracking prevention, and similar topics. Therefore, as the person who proposed adding the “skip redirect” extension to Brave’s mv2 manifest extension hosting, I strongly hope that the Brave development team will accept and consider less popular mv2 manifest extensions that offer significant privacy benefits and for which there are no adequate alternatives—neither from mv3 manifest extensions nor from Brave’s built-in features. The more MV2 privacy extensions hosted by Brave, the greater the privacy guarantees Brave can offer.

5. I’d like to compare Brave with another Chromium-based browser (or “ungoogled Chromium”) that still supports installing MV2 manifest extensions: the Helium Browser (Version 0.14.3.1, Chromium 150.0.7871.46). Helium can still install and maintain MV2 extensions—such as Skip Redirect and ViolentMonkey—even from the Chrome Web Store without any issues. For now, I believe Helium is ahead of Brave in terms of MV2 manifest extension support. If the Brave development team can follow in Helium’s footsteps, Brave can remain competitive amid Google’s monopolistic policies that harm users. I hope to continue using Brave rather than switching back to a Gecko-based browser because, based on my research, Brave offers superior fingerprinting protection compared to Gecko-based browsers.

Those are a few suggestions from me. I’m offering this advice because some Brave users in my country are starting to switch to Gecko-based browsers that still fully support all MV2 manifest extensions. They simply don’t want the extensions they’ve been using for years to disappear just because of Google’s influence on Chromium. I hope the Brave development team will consider my suggestions, especially points 1, 4, and 5. Thank you for all your help and for Brave’s continued commitment to protecting user privacy.

8

I’ve found a solution to bypass redirects and the mv2 manifest extension—which isn’t one of the four popular extensions hosted by Brave, as mentioned in the link. Thank you to the entire Brave development team and the moderators who helped me. Although it’s still a temporary solution, I’m very happy because “skip redirect” is one of many less popular mv2 extensions that are incredibly useful to me personally. With that, I’m closing this thread. I hope the Brave browser continues to improve in the future.

Additional note:

After trying the method based on instructions from Reddit, I realized that all mv2 manifest extensions installed from the Chrome Web Store are only active while the browser is running; when you close and then reopen the browser, the extension stops working even if you’ve used temporary flags. Finally, I found a concrete solution to keep the mv2 extension active in Brave for the latest update as of this writing: install it via the developer (offline) mechanism by downloading the original source code for the mv2 extension (.Zip) available on GitHub (example: https://github.com/sblask-webextensions/webextension-skip-redirect). After closing and reopening the browser, the extension remains active as long as the temporary flag continues to function in Chromium version 150. If you can’t find the offline source files for the mv2 extension, I recommend using this CRX Extractor/Downloader (https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/crx-extractordownloader/ajkhmmldknmfjnmeedkbkkojgobmljda) and then downloading the .zip file from the mv2 extension page on the Chrome Web Store. I hope my experience can help resolve this issue.

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Sharing for those who haven’t already seen these posts - Some extensions suddenly turned off because they are "no longer supported" - #3 by Mattches & https://x.com/brave/status/2073050420025434129?s=20.

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@steeven

Thank you for your help. I’ve figured out how to fix the MV2 issue in Brave on my own.