AdGuard Browser Assistant v1.4: Migrating to Manifest V3

The epic journey of adapting our browser extensions to Manifest V3 is still on, and we've hit another milestone! Now the time has come for your faithful companion in ad-blocking: we are ready to announce AdGuard Browser Assistant v1.4, fully adapted to MV3.

While using the extension, you may not even notice any difference in your user experience or in its overall functionality, but make no mistake: a lot has changed. Due to the limitations of the new API, adapting extensions to Manifest V3 is a laborious task, but the work needs to be done — slowly but surely, extensions are hopping on the MV3 train.

So where are the changes then?

In a nutshell, the background page is gone in the MV3 version of AdGuard Browser Assistant. The background page is responsible for a separate process, in which extensions could maintain their active status and work with the browser APIs. In Manifest V3, this page is replaced by a service worker, which is often interrupted by the browser. When the browser stops the service worker, the extension goes into a kind of sleep mode. For the extension to be functional, something must wake up the service worker: it can be loading a page or a message that has been sent to the service worker. In the AdGuard Browser Assistant v1.4, the service work is triggered by the AdGuard desktop applications themselves, to which the assistant is connected.

Dealing with the service worker posed one of our main goals, but we encountered a few other necessary changes along the way. In our previous posts, we've delved into the process of transitioning to MV3 in detail, particularly with our AdGuard Browser Extension and AdGuard VPN Browser Extension. A lot of what we learned during those transitions turned out to be incredibly valuable as we developed the AdGuard Browser Assistant v1.4. So, if you're curious about the technical side of things, feel free to check out these blog posts for more detailed insights.

Still not using AdGuard Browser Assistant?

Well, this is a great opportunity to try our extension. You can find it on our website or get it directly from your desktop app.

On AdGuard for Windows, go to Settings → Browser Assistant → Get the extension.

On AdGuard for Mac, go to Preferences… → Assistant → Install.

Enjoy!

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We genuinely appreciate your feedback and warmly invite you to share your thoughts and suggestions on this new version with us — AdGuard is present on nearly every social media platform, eager to connect with our community members wherever they hang out!