Google Chrome Web Store Updates

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This is just so bad.
Dear Developer,

When we launched the Chrome Web Store 11 years ago, there weren't a lot of ways for our developers to take payment from users. Today, there is a thriving ecosystem of payment providers offering a far more diverse set of features than a single provider could hope to. Now that our developers have so many great options to choose from, we can comfortably sunset our own payments integration.

This decision has no effect on extensions that don't use Chrome Web Store payments. Developers looking to monetize their extensions can still do so using third-party providers.

Deprecation timeline
The Chrome Web Store payments API is deprecated as of Sept 21st, 2020 and will be shut down over the coming months. There are many other ways to monetize your extensions; if you currently use Chrome Web Store payments, you’ll need to migrate to one of them.

Now: You can no longer create new paid extensions or in-app items. This began as a temporary restriction in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 situation. This change is now made permanent.
December 1, 2020: Free trials are disabled. The "Try Now" button in CWS will no longer be visible, and in-app free trial requests will result in an error.
February 1, 2021: Your existing items and in-app purchases can no longer charge money with Chrome Web Store payments. You can still query license information for previously paid purchases and subscriptions. (The licensing API will accurately reflect the status of active subscriptions, but these subscriptions won’t auto-renew.)
At some future time: The licensing API will no longer allow you to determine license status for your users.
What it means to developers
If you don’t use Chrome Web Store payments to monetize your extension, then this does not affect you and you don’t have to do anything.

If you use Chrome Web Store payments to charge for your extension or in-app purchases, you’ll need to migrate to another payments processor in the near future. If you use the licensing API to keep track of who has paid, you’ll need to implement another way of tracking user licenses.

See the payments deprecation page for more details on how to prepare for this change.

Thank you for your cooperation, and for your participation in the Chrome extension ecosystem!

- The Google Chrome Web Store team
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Dear Developer,

As you know, we are continuously looking for ways to ensure the security and quality of the Chrome Web Store for our end users. As part of this effort, today we’re announcing a new email verification policy to take effect soon.

Today, developers enter an email address as part of the Chrome Web Store developer account setup process. This email is displayed publicly as a method for users to contact the developer on the item detail pages of items published by the account.

Beginning December 1, 2021, the Chrome Web Store will require that all email addresses entered as a part of account setup must be verified. From that date forward, developers without a verified email address may no longer publish new items or update existing items.

What you need to do

Follow the directions for verifying your contact email address in the page Publish in the Chrome Web Store.

If you have any questions, you can contact developer support.

Thank you for your cooperation and for your participation in the Chrome extension ecosystem!

- The Google Chrome Web Store team
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Dear Developer,

Since 2009, developers have been hard at work building extensions that make Chrome more powerful, useful, and personalized for users. The Chrome Web Store aims to make it easy for users to find top quality extensions while recognizing the developers who create them. Today, we're happy to announce two new extension badges to help us deliver on that goal: the Featured badge and the Established publisher badge. Both of these badges will appear in the store in the next few weeks.

Developers who earn these badges may receive higher rankings in search and filtering, and may also see their extensions appear in special promotions both on and off Chrome Web Store. Learn more about the new badges below.

Featured badge
The Featured badge will be granted to extensions that follow our technical best practices and meet a high standard of user experience and design. Featured badges will be assigned to qualifying extensions through our extension review system. Chrome staff will manually evaluate each extension before it receives the badge, paying special attention to the following:

Adherence to Chrome Web Store's best practices guidelines, including providing a delightful and intuitive experience, using the latest platform APIs, and respecting the privacy of end-users.
A store listing page that is clear and helpful to prospective users, with quality images and a detailed description.
Established Publisher badge
The new Established Publisher badge will showcase developers who have verified their identity and demonstrated compliance with the developer program policies. This badge will be granted automatically to publishers who meet the following two conditions:

The publisher's identity has been verified.
The publisher has established a consistent positive track record with Google services and compliance with the Developer Program Policy.
Any extensions built by a developer who follows the Chrome Web Store Developer Program Policies and does not have any unresolved violations will be considered. For new developers, it will take at least a few months of respecting these conditions to qualify. Today, this represents nearly 75% of all extensions in the Chrome Web Store and we expect this number to keep growing.

What you need to do
There is no mandatory action, but we recommend that developers review their extension(s) over the next few weeks to ensure they're in line with our best practices guidelines.

Note that developers cannot pay to receive either badge, but we aim to provide them with other ways to request consideration. Starting on April 20, 2022 the One Stop Support page will begin trialing an option that allows developers to nominate extensions for the Featured badge. Additional details will be available in the Discovery on the Chrome Web Store documentation.

We are excited to recognize extension excellence on the Chrome Web Store through these new badges. Thank you for your participation in the Chrome extension ecosystem!

- The Google Chrome Web Store team
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Dear Developer,

We are announcing a set of policy updates designed to encourage the development of high quality products, prevent deceptive behavior, and ensure informed user consent. These updates include:

Minimum Functionality Policy Update—Expands our current Minimum Functionality Policy to include click-baity template extensions, empty extensions, and extensions that do not directly provide their stated functionality.
Misleading and Deceptive Behavior Policy Update—Prohibits anti-virus, privacy, and security extensions that provide no discernible protection or monitoring.
Affiliate Ads Policy—Establishes new disclosure requirements for extensions that include affiliate ad programs. Developers will now be required to disclose any affiliate programs to users before installation. Additionally, related user action is required before the inclusion of affiliate codes, links, or cookies.
Developers can also learn more about today's guidance in our Program Policies. These policy clarifications will go into effect on January 15, 2023. After that date, extensions in violation of these new policies may be removed from the Chrome Web Store and be disabled.

If you have any questions, you can contact developer support.

Thank you for your cooperation, and for your participation in the Chrome extension ecosystem!

- The Google Chrome Web Store team
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Dear Developer,

As part of the rollout for the redesign of the Chrome Web Store, extension categories have been expanded from a list of eleven to a new list of seventeen in three category groups (“Productivity”, “Lifestyle”, and “Make Chrome Yours”). You selected the category for your extension on the Developer Dashboard under Store Listing when you uploaded your extension. Starting today, all extensions are shown in a new category, but we invite you to review, and if necessary, revise the new category assigned to your extension. Categories on the Chrome Web Store help users discover new items to fit their needs, and help us organize content and build collections for users based on use cases or narratives.

- The Google Chrome Web Store team
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Damn. It really does require a redesign. But Google would make it worse so there's that.
 
Dear Developer,

The stats shown to you in the developer dashboard (for example, item impressions) have historically been saved indefinitely. This has allowed you to see all the metrics for your item since it was first published on the Chrome Web Store.

Beginning March 28, 2024, we will apply a 5-year retention period to all viewable stats on the Developer Dashboard. Data older than 5 years will be deleted.

If you want to retain stats that are older than five years, you can do so using the "Export to CSV" buttons located beneath all of the data panels in the Analytics section of the Developer Dashboard. You will need to do this before the retention period changes on March 28, 2024.

Thank you for your cooperation and participation in the Chrome extension ecosystem.

- The Google Chrome Web Store team​
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