Bitwarden transitions from Manifest v2 to v3
Help Bitwarden test the new Manifest v3 Chrome extension and provide feedback: Use the Google form, submit an issue in GitHub, or directly on this Reddit thread.
The Bitwarden browser extension is utilized on over 6 million devices and serves as the primary interface for how users save and auto-fill login credentials to access their key websites. These kinds of extension features are facilitated through extension APIs, provided by the underlying browser, empowering extension developers to enhance the browsing experience for users.
Every extension is created with a manifest.json file in its root directory that informs the browser about the functionality of the extension. The previous version of this manifest, Manifest v2, has powered extensions for all browsers over a decade. In 2019, the Google Chrome team announced a new update to this architecture, known as Manifest v3, that all extensions would be required to migrate to.
The push to Manifest v3 spurred the formation of the W3C WebExtensions Community Group in 2021, composed of browser teams from Google, Mozilla, and Apple, and extension developers, including active participation from Bitwarden. By having the browser developers and the extension developers coordinate on standards, this ensured that the rollout of Manifest v3 would uphold principles of performance, security, and user privacy. Although Manifest v3 was announced in 2019, the transition has been a multi-year effort; requiring close coordination between Chrome and the developer community to surface and remediate migration issues before Manifest v2 is deprecated. Now that many issues have been resolved, Google has resumed the deprecation timeline of Manifest v2 to June 2024. As Bitwarden upgraded its browser extension to Manifest v3, it required a significant architectural shift in structure, affecting how the extension operated. Here is how Bitwarden addressed the challenges posed by this new architectural approach and what lies ahead for Manifest v3 extensions.
