It's that time of the year again! Google I/O 2026 has just concluded so you can check out all the biggest extension updates that Oliver and Kevin have covered in the video.

More developers, more AI, more extensions

AI is making extension development more approachable than ever. This momentum is clearly visible in our metrics: over the last year, monthly developer registrations have more than doubled. AI isn't just changing the development process, it's becoming a core feature of the extensions themselves. Currently, 17% of all extensions created for the Chrome Web Store in the past year use AI. To support the growing community of extensions developers, we are expanding developer registration to over 120 additional countries this year.

Modern Web Guidance extensions skill

To help developers build better extensions with AI coding agents we've created a skill for coding agents specifically designed for extension development. This skill is a part of our broader initiative, Modern Web Guidance (MWG), which provides AI coding agents with the web platform expertise, best practices, and modern API patterns.

Check out the developer guide for instructions on how to setup the MWG extensions skill.

Chrome DevTools for agents is a suite of tools that brings the power of Chrome DevTools to your AI coding workflows and it now supports extension debugging.

This allows AI agents to perform programmatic tasks within Chrome, including:

• Installing and uninstalling extensions.
• Listing and reloading installed extensions.
• Triggering extension actions and inspecting every surface, from the popup to the background service worker.

Follow these instructions to set up Chrome DevTools for agents for extension debugging.

Expanded member roles and permissions in Chrome Web Store

Managing extensions in collaborative, cross-functional teams is becoming easier with several key updates to the Developer Dashboard.

To address the "all-or-nothing" access challenges that many teams face, we have introduced granular member roles. Dashboard owners can now invite team members into specific roles with a single click:

• Admin: For those tasked with overall management and onboarding other members.
• Item Manager: For developers who need to upload and submit extension updates.
• Viewer: For team members who only need to monitor performance metrics.

Additional members can be invited to a publisher at no cost and without requiring individual developer registration. For more details, read Empower your team with expanded roles in the Developer Dashboard.

Enterprise publishing for external organizations

For developers building bespoke solutions for enterprises, we've introduced a more flexible distribution model. Previously, enterprise developers could only publish extensions privately to their own enterprise. With the new private enterprise publishing option on the Chrome Web Store, developers can deploy their extensions privately to external organizations that approve them, all from within the store.

For more details, read New enterprise publishing option in the Chrome Web Store: Publish to external organizations.

Transition to browser namespace

Our commitment to a cross-browser WebExtensions platform continues with significant updates to the Chrome runtime. Chrome now supports the browser global namespace, matching the implementation in other major browsers. This shared global makes it easier for developers to build and maintain cross-browser extensions without relying on aliases.

To learn how to update your extension following these changes, read Transition to browser namespace.

Conclusion

Our goal at Chrome remains to remove friction from your workflow so you can focus on building incredible experiences. Whether through expanded store permissions, modernized platform APIs, or AI-integrated tooling, we are dedicated to elevating the extension developer experience. We can't wait to see what you build next.