Which Android browsers support Chrome extensions?

Why doesn't Android Chrome have extensions?

I see the Android Chrome and I realize it does not have extensions.

I assume you have to have a phone to use it? And do you need to pay for it? I'm curious, since I like Chrome on my PC and it has extensions. Thanks!

I'm assuming you mean the beta for Lollipop, the actual version of Chrome OS will not be out for a while after the release of the final version of Lollipop. I think they will probably wait until the release of that before releasing the actual Chrome OS version.

You can download a beta of Lollipop for ARM if you want to try it out. It's also available for x86, but I don't think that's in a public beta state yet, so you would have to sign up for an ARM emulator and create a partition with that version. I know it works because I tried it.

Yeah, I know what you're referring to. The problem is, I have never tried it. I don't have any reason to try it. I've been on Android for years now. I haven't done anything with Chrome or Chrome OS. So I'm fine with it as is.

Yes, you have to have a phone to use it. Yes, you need to pay for it. The version of Chrome OS on the Chromebooks you buy will come preinstalled with the Google Play store. You can sideload apps and extensions into that store using the "Get Apps" feature on your device.

I don't want to buy a phone to use it, and you can't just take the whole thing and put it on your computer.

Which Android browsers support Chrome extensions?

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Please enable Javascript to watch this video. Chromebook support just got a whole lot more powerful. That's because the Chrome team released a version of its extension service called "Background Pages" today. The new "tabs for apps" technology let web designers create an extension designed specifically for a website. That way, all your other browser tabs will appear as pages, as they did before the release of Background Pages.

"Today's updates bring us much closer to developing full-fledged web apps, explains the Chrome team about Background Pages. Right now you have to use Google's online developer tools or HTML mode in any modern browser to develop the new extension-based tab system. Background Pages is currently available for anyone with an active Chromebook or Android smartphone with Chrome 28 or later installed.

"As of now, only those running the newest versions of Chrome or Android are able to use Background Pages, but we're committed to bringing the feature to even more Android users in the future. This is the beginning of what we're doing with Android, which we've been experimenting with for more than a year," says Chrome product manager Simon Johnson.

Once you've created a background page you can simply load it from within a web page. To display it for the rest of your web browsing experience, simply click the share button in the upper right corner.

It's actually similar to how things worked before the invention of Chrome extensions. Before you could view "app" tabs on any website. Today's "app" tabs, however, also have a link so you can view them from the rest of your browsing experience.

Here's the Chrome Team's guide on how to get started with developing these types of extensions. "I think that everyone who thinks a little bit about mobile user interfaces and the idea of web sites and native apps and mobile browsers wants to build a web app on Android," says Johnson.

The Chromium developer's guide also has some great documentation on how to port the extension APIs to other platforms.

Will Chrome Android ever support extensions?

According to Google, the Android version of Chrome will support extensions in the future.

This might be the answer to a long-standing question I've had. It's been over four years since Google announced it would support extensions on Chrome OS. And while it's come true, it's not been without hiccups.

On the other hand, Google has done a good job with Android and has done a great job with Chrome for Android. That's why, in November 2025, I switched to using Chrome for Android as my primary browser. But even after my switch, I kept wondering whether Chrome on Android would ever support extensions.

It's not that I was concerned about using Chrome for Android with extensions. I was more concerned about the platform. Chrome on Android is so good, I often use it on my desktop. But I wanted to see what would happen if I used Chrome for Android on my phone.

The answer, unfortunately, was that there was a big difference. I'll admit that I didn't go in completely cold turkey. I'd been using Chrome for Android for almost a year before I decided to make the switch. But even so, I only began using the Chrome for Android web store and was using the browser a couple of times a week at that point.

After that point, I only used Chrome for Android a few times a week. The main reason was that I switched to the Opera mobile browser, which I liked a lot better than Chrome for Android. (Opera and Firefox are both open source and built on Chromium.)

But even with Opera, I still didn't use Chrome for Android all that much. I still liked Chrome for Android and wanted to use it a bit more, but it was hard to justify spending the time and effort switching browsers.

But when I made the switch, I was surprised to find that I'd been using Chrome for Android for over a year without realizing it. At first, I thought I might have somehow missed it. I'd never thought about it before.

And then I realized that I'd never seen an extension show up in Chrome for Android. That was because, at the time, extensions weren't supported on Chrome for Android.

That may not seem like much.

Can I add extensions to Chrome on Android?

I would like to add some extensions to the Chrome browser on my Android device.

Is there a way to do this? I would like to add Google Chrome Extensions that would be similar to Chrome Extensions on Desktop.

First you have to root your Android device. Once you rooted, open the terminal and run the following command. # adb root. Then install the appropriate software for the extension (on your PC you would go to "Android SDK", then "extensions" folder, then you'd install the appropriate software): # adb shell pm install -r . Now it should be installed. You can check the extension in the browser.

If it worked, you can go to "Settings > Apps > Manage Applications" and remove the .apk file.

When you reboot, the extension should be installed.