How to Get Chrome Extensions on Android
Whether you’re a student or work from home or an office, Chrome has some great extensions that help with organization, productivity, learning, and entertainment. You’ve probably discovered quite a few of these handy extensions and plugins on your computer. So, how can you get these extensions on your Android device as well? Is it even possible?
The good news is that it’s possible and relatively easy to get your favorite Chrome extensions on your Android device, and we’ll show you how. In this article on Chrome extensions for your Android device, we’ll be covering the following topics:
- Why should you get Google Chrome Extensions for Android?
- Is there a difference between Chrome mobile extensions and PC extensions?
- Steps to get Chrome extensions on Android
- Steps to remove Chrome extensions from Android
Why Should You Get Google Chrome Extensions for Android?
For most of us, our Android devices are so much more than just a phone. It’s also a work tool, diary, day planner, source of inspiration, meal planner, exercise planner, and more. It just makes sense that with the wide range of extensions available to help with all these, we’d want it available on our mobile device as well.
Think about how many times you have to type emails from your device. How many of these emails are professional? If you had the Grammarly Chrome extension on your Android phone, you’d be assured that your emails are written correctly. Perhaps privacy is your main concern, and you’d like to have the Privacy Badger extension for Chrome on your Android device to also offer its protection there? These are just a few of many examples as to why you should get Chrome extensions on your Android device.
Is There a Difference Between Chrome Mobile Extensions and PC Extensions?
There is a significant difference when it comes to Chrome Android extensions and those available on PC. Google Chrome is one of the most popular browsers on Android and Windows devices. It is one of the fastest, securest, and easiest to use. You also have the added benefit of having a wide range of extensions and add-ons available so that you can completely personalize your browsing experience.
These Chrome extensions are readily available on your PC Chrome browser, but for some reason, they are not yet available on the Android Chrome version. This is odd considering that Google created both Chrome and Android. One would think they would’ve made it possible to install Chrome extensions on your Android device. This is especially true when you consider that Firefox users have been able to install and use Chrome extensions for a while.
The only way that you’ll be able to use Chrome extensions on your Android device is by using another Chromium browser. Luckily for you, there are many good chromium-based browsers available for Android that also support Chrome extensions. Here are a few of our favorite chromium browsers to look at:
- Yandex (most popular option)
- Kiwi Browser
- Bromite Browser
- Dolphin Browser
Steps to Get Chrome Extensions on Android
Now that we’ve covered a bit about why you’d want to use extensions on Android, and the key difference between Chrome on PC and Chrome on Android, let’s get into the actual steps you need to take to install Chrome extensions on your Android device.
Step 1: Download New Browser
First, you’ll have to download a new chromium browser that is able to access the Chrome Webstore and install extensions. To do this, you can go into your Play Store and download one of the browsers mentioned above. Yandex seems to be one of the favorites, especially when it comes to also using Chrome extensions.
Step 2: Make the New Browser Your Default
Once the new browser has been downloaded and installed on your Android device, you need to make it the default browser. Open the phone settings on your Android device and tap on ‘Apps and Notifications’. Next, tap on ‘Advanced’ and then tap on ‘Default App’.
Step 3: Go to the Chrome Webstore
Now you can go into your new browser and type in chrome.google.com/webstore to go to the Chrome Webstore.
Step 4: Search for the Extension
In the search bar, type the name of the extension you want. You can also search for the type of extension you want if you don’t know the exact name. Once you see the extension you’d like in the search results, you can click on it to get more information and proceed with installing it should you wish to.
Step 5: Install the Extension
Click on the extension in the search results; you will be taken to a page with more information and reviews of the extension. If you want to download it, tap on ‘Install’ at the bottom of the page. Once the extension has been installed on your Android device, it will automatically be added to your browser.
Tip: Be aware that not all extensions will work on your new browser. There are still limitations to the types of Chrome extensions that will work on your mobile device. However, there are a few that generally work well. This might take some trial and error to find the right mobile Chrome extensions.
Steps to Remove Chrome Extensions on Android
Since there is a bit of trial-and-error with Chrome extensions on Android devices, you may have to remove extensions after installing them. This could be because they don’t work on your device, or perhaps they don’t do what you hoped they would. Here are the steps to disable and remove extensions and add-ons.
Step 1: Open Your Browser
Open your browser that has the extensions or add-ons you want to remove.
Step 2: Open Your Browser Settings
Now, tap on your browser settings. This is usually represented by three vertical dots.
Step 3: Navigate to Your Extension
Once in your browser’s settings, tap on ‘Add-ons and Themes’ or similar (this title may vary between different browsers) and then tap on ‘Extensions’.
Step 4: Disable Extensions
Scroll through the list of installed extensions until you find the one you want to disable or remove. If you want to disable the extension, you can tap on the toggle.
Step 5: Remove Extension
If you want to completely remove the extension, you’ll need to tap on the three vertical dots next to the extension and then select ‘Remove’.
Bottom Line
Having access to your favorite Chrome extensions on Android can make all the difference between an ok browsing experience and a great one. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to do this with your Chrome browser. Luckily there are many other chromium browsers such as Yandex or Firefox that allow you to install Android Chrome add-ons.
firefox is a chromium browser?
Shaun seems to think it is!
No, but the extensions are identical underneath so there have been ways for Firefox to run Chrome extensions for years now.
They are similar but not identical. The subtle differences prevent many Chromium addons from running on Firefox.
That said, this article is a new low for ghacks.
Bromite doesn’t support extensions btw.
I don’t know if anyone has tried it yet (I haven’t because I don’t have an Android phone on me right now) but if it was possible to install uBO in Bromite that would be the ultimate browsing experience.
• Kiwi Browser: https://github.com/kiwibrowser/src.next/releases
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kiwibrowser.browser and supports Chrome extensions.
• Yandex Browser does support Chrome extensions, but breaks some services. Used and abandoned it.
• Bromite Browser will only support extensions, if Chromium will support it. So no extensions here.
https://github.com/bromite/bromite/blob/master/FAQ.md#does-bromite-support-extensions
• Dolphin Browser itself won’t allow Chrome extensions. They have a few for the browser made by themselves, but that’s all.
Please, inform yourself before you copy/paste an article from another website. Thanks.
This. Author didn’t do enough research.
Yes Claymore is 100% right on everything he said.
Plus when Bromite tried to do extensions they actually copy-pasted from Kiwi (but they abandoned) so just stick to Kiwi or Yandex.
Wow, this is really unprofessional. Ghacks has really stooped low enough to be scraping the bottom of the barrel… unfortunate.
Author didn’t do any research.
Grammarly is a privacy hell, it sends sensitive data away while this should work locally instead. That should be already enough to avoid it.
However, it’s also combined with identifying data like email address or Google/Facebook account, and unique device identifiers for some reason. The company does not hide that humans may read the content as part of normal use of the service, even when no human proofreading was requested. The third-party plugins with their own privacy policies are probably another trap. And as usual with such businesses, they admit that they will sell all that sentitive data to anyone who will buy their company. That last point is usually overlooked because such businesses include it so often and one may falsely assume that the buyer will not be worse than the current owner, but it’s like they are probabilistically selling your sensitive data for any purpose if that becomes profitable enough.
Ublock Origin is far superior to Privacy Badger and is the first one that one would expect to be recommended.
The main security problem by far being privacy on the web, Chrome is not one of the securest, but one of the least secure. Even on the minor part of security that Google defines as the only one that matters, Google is often less secure than ethical competitors, for profit reasons.
Google did indeed not copy its Mozilla Corporation puppet by supporting extensions (typically adblockers, that’s mostly why, nothing “odd” here) on mobile, instead Mozilla Corporation copied its Google pimp in mostly removing extension support from mobile, for the same reason that extension support is generally speaking pro-user and Google-hostile. There was a lot of propaganda (from Mozilla Corporation guided ghacks commenters for example) during the beta phase of the version that would remove extension support, to promise that the removal was only temporary, which proved to be a lie like as usual.
On Samsung galaxy tablet it doesn’t work at all. Chrome browser is default, version is 96.
@Pearl33
For the use of extensions, download the Kiwi browser from the Play Store. Google Chrome doesn’t support extensions on Android.
This workflow absolutely does NOT work in Firefox for Android.
Kiwi is the king of Android browsers.
Another barrage of Android coming?
As someone who uses Apple/IOS exclusively, why are we being ignored?
You gotta be kidding me?! I read most of the article thinking you had a way to somehow install Chrome Web Store extensions on the mobile Chrome browser. And your solution is to get another Chromium-based browser?! And then see how that works?! Oh, how brilliant! Thanks for wasting my time!
And most of the Android browsers he recommends don’t actually support extensions. Yandex’s support is broken, Kiwi does support them, but nothing else.
Too many “smartheads” free for writing their recommendations. Do research before you go, pls.
Same here. None of the alternative browsers work for me because they can’t sync with desktop Chrome. Firefox can sync with desktop Firefox, but the mobile version is broken on Pixel phones.
@kuro
Try Focus, it has become more FF than mobile FF. You can access about:config now. IDK if your sync issue will be fixed but may be worth a try.
Can’t you just, like, install extensions the same as always?
YUP!
Next article: How to Drink Water. Which will be a garbled ad for some stupid phone culture vitamin water crap.
This ShaunBot thing seriously needs an algorithm fix. It’s good for laughs for sure.
Oops, got mixed up with desktop.
Kiwi is spyware https://github.com/Tobi823/ffupdater/issues/35
There have been many comments with regards to the quality of ghacks.net writer Shaun and the quality of his article on this page. The author generally does not report well and is deceptive or uncareful about the accuracy of the information he presents. The author also seems to unreasonably impose his own or other values onto the readers.
With regards to the subject of the article of Android browsers that support extensions, I shall provide my experience. There are a few Android web browsers that I have tried that support browser extensions.
There is Firefox and a fork of Firefox, Fennec F-Droid (available on F-Droid). My understanding is that extension support for newer Android Firefox is more limited than older versions of the browser, but I have not tested such newer versions. I could confirm that Fennec F-Droid 68.12.0 is the last version that allows the general use of Firefox extensions. Presumably Firefox 68.x series would be the last Firefox version series to fully support extensions.
There is Kiwi Browser. Kiwi Browser is a Chromium-based browser. Kiwi Browser does have decent support for Chromium extensions. Unfortunately, newer versions of the browser have rather, in my opinion, severe problems. Those problems are that the address bar/URL bar/omnibox does not show the full URL unless one focuses the address bar and that the app nags via system notification that Google Play services are not available when Google Play services are disabled, not installed, or otherwise unavailable. A member of the XDA Developers forums has tried to make the Kiwi browser developer aware of these issues (see https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/app-4-1-kiwi-browser-chromium-adblock-caf-night-mode-2021-07-29-active.3797252/post-85486391 ), but to date, the issues still manifest on current versions. Kiwi Browser has three different GitHub repositories to download its browser from. The repositories have different browser versions and the same browser versions are typically not duplicated amongst the repositories. I would state that the last known good version of Kiwi Browser for Android is 570536402 and is available for download at https://github.com/kiwibrowser/src/releases .
Ungoogled Chromium has extension support for a set of some now older versions. The extension support feature was dropped. The last version of Ungoogled Chromium to support extensions was version v88.0.4324.182-2-Extensions. Unfortunately, extension supporting downloads are no longer available for download, as older versions of the browser beyond the current few are not being offered anymore. I have never actually tested the extension support of the browser versions that supported extensions.
Yandex browser and Samsung Internet browsers reportedly also have extension support, but I have not tried those browsers.
Brave Browser was to add extension support and it should have been implemented by now, but I have not looked much into the status of it nor have I tested Brave Browser myself.
It seems Dolphin browser does not allow Chrome extensions.
Articles like this make I want to stop reading this blog.