Summary
Several Android browsers support extensions, but Chrome is notably not one of them. However, Chrome extensions might be coming to Android, but not in the way you think. Google is working on a special “desktop” version of Chrome for Android that supports browser extensions.
Why a version ofChrome for Androidfor desktops when there are already Chrome versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux? This move is likely related toGoogle’s plans to transition Chrome OS to an Android base. When that happens, Google wants to ensure the Chrome experience remains the same. While these special builds aren’t meant for phones, it is possible to install them, and that’s exactly what Mishaal Rahman did.
A recent change in one of the Desktop Chrome for Android builds allows you to install extensions by dragging and dropping .crx files manually. Mishaal was able to try out a number of extensions, including Dark Reader, Keepa, and uBlock Origin, and they all worked, with some limitations.
First, you can’t open extension options pages, and there’s no extensions button in the toolbar. The extensions are simply automatically enabled once installed. Also, as you would imagine, installing them is a bit clunky right now. There’s obviously not a Chrome Web Store for Android, so everything is very barebones.
Google’s goal at the moment is to simply get extensions working at all. You have to go to chrome://extensions to see what’s installed and enabled. Actuallyusingthe extensions is pretty difficult without the options page and toolbar button, but they do work. The screenshots below show Keep Amazon Tracker and Dark Reader functioning.
Does this work signal that Google could be bringing extensions to Chrome for Android on phones as well? Probably not. For whatever reason, Google has avoided bringing extensions to Android, despite its main competitors, Firefox and Microsoft Edge, having done so.
So, while it’s exciting to see Google actually doing some work with extensions in Chrome for Android, it’s more likely than not that we won’t see them on our phones any time soon.
