Unlike Google Chrome, Opera still supports uBlock Origin & other Manifest v2 extensions

Tired of Chroming blocking uBlock Origin? Opera One may be an alternative, as it won’t drop its support for Manifest v2 extensions, which the ad-blocker relies on.

The popular AI-friendly Chromium-based browser has just launched its latest update, the Opera One R2, recently. And with that, the Norwegian tech firm followed up on its promise earlier this month that you can still use ad-blocking extensions like uBlock Origin, even as other browsers transition to Manifest V3, which might disable some older extensions.

Opera will also maintain its native ad-blocking feature, which has been available since 2016 even on its gaming-friendly Opera GX browser, unaffected by these changes. Manifest v3 will be fully implemented by early 2025.

Google has been on a heavy crackdown on uBlock Origin, a Manifest v2 extension, so much so that its phase-out period has now begun. Folks have been complaining that Chrome has automatically disabled the popular ad blocker. Sure, we do have a Manifest v3-friendly uBlock Origin Lite, but it offers fewer filtering capabilities.

“For you, this means that you will be able to keep using extensions such as uBlock Origin uninterrupted, instead of switching to the more bare-bones version of uBlock Origin Lite,” Opera mentions in the blog post.

Speaking of the R2 update, it also brings some more AI features, like image generation & understanding on the Aria AI side panel, as well as split screen, tab screen, and more.