Despite being a popular web browser, Google Chrome is missing many key features found on other Android browsers, such as extension support. It looks like Google finally plans to enable support for extensions on Chrome for Android. We now have a first look at the Desktop Android version of Google Chrome, which supports browser extensions.
Googleโs new desktop Chrome build brings extensions to Android
Folks over at Android Authority have managed to install desktop builds of Chrome for Android on a tablet, suggesting that Google is working on a new version that will allow users to add extensions, just like on PCs. It is worth noting that Google has developed these desktop builds for Chromebooks and PCs that run Android, not for phones or tablets, as it wants to integrate more parts of Android into ChromeOS. However, this raises hopes as these desktop builds might expand to mobile devices in the future.
Although these desktop builds are not available on the Play Store, users can download them from the server. After installation on tablet or mobile devices, users can manually add browser extensions to Chrome. They just need to download the extensionsโ .crx files and then drag them into the chrome://extensions page, a dedicated section for managing extensions. Chrome automatically enables some extensions, like Dark Reader, Keepa, and uBlock Origin, upon installation โ users simply need to refresh web pages to see them in action.
Limited functionality in extension support
The reports also add that during their testing, some extensions worked very well, though many were unusable. This is not surprising, as these are Chromebook-intended builds that lack important tools for many extensions, such as an โextensionsโ button in the toolbar. The publication expects that Google will soon add support for installing extensions via the Chrome Web Store, as the current manual installation process is complex for many.
As of now, Google has no plans to officially make these desktop builds available for mobile or tablets. The company also has no intention of adding the extensions feature to existing versions of the mobile browser. For now, regular mobile or tablet users will have to rely on other Android web browsers to use extensions.
