It is true that extensions are one of the most important pillars of browsers today. However, many developers abuse them too much, which in the end ends up tainting the user experience. As with Android or iOS apps, Chrome extensions can be free or paid. However, it seems that this is going to change, as Google has decided to do away with one of these two types of plugins.
If we have ever been walking around the Chrome Store itself, we have surely come across paid extensions . So far nothing unusual, since this business model is the same for everyone. However, it seems that Google was not very happy with it, and, finally, it seems that the company has decided to put an end to this type of add-ons permanently.
Google will no longer allow paid extensions in Chrome
Google temporarily disabled the publication of paid extensions for Chrome last March for internal reasons. The company assured that this deactivation would be temporary, and that later this monetization system would become part of its store again.
However, it seems that there was some hidden intention in this deactivation. And, in the end, Google has confirmed that, since last September 21, 2020 , developers will no longer be able to create new payment extensions. Neither are add-ons that have in-app purchases.
If any extension has trial versions, they will continue to work until December 1 of this year. After this date, the “Try now” button in the Chrome Store will be hidden and extensions with trial periods will directly give an error. Collections of money through the Chrome Web Store will be blocked next February 2021.
From that date, everything related to payment extensions or in-app purchases will be a thing of the past. However, this does not mean that developers stop making money from them, far from it.
New APIs for income generation
Google doesn’t want everything used in Chrome to be free, far from it. Simply, the company has considered that, although 11 years ago the payment system of the Chrome Store made sense, today there are better options for developers to monetize their extensions. Therefore, it encourages developers to jump into one of these alternative monetization systems.
If an extension uses a payment system within the Chrome Store, its developer will have to migrate it to another payments API in order to continue monetizing it, this time out of Google’s hands. Also, if the extension uses the payments API to find out who has paid, it will be necessary to change this API to another user license tracking system .
What Google wants is to get rid of services that do not generate money , such as this system of payments and collections. This also means that we will probably see other company services disappear soon for the same reason: because they are not profitable.
What will happen if I have paid for an extension?
Google in this sense washes its hands . The company has simply announced the closure of its payment platform and has given the developers all the instructions and facilities to migrate the data. Developers will be able to keep track (for a limited time) of users who have paid for the license to migrate their accounts to a new system. However, to be honest, this is highly unlikely. Most likely, when the developer adopts the new payments API and the new licensing system, we will have to checkout again . Except in a specific case of an honest developer.
All the free extensions that do not have any payment system will obviously not be affected by any of this, and will work normally.
