Good news for extension developers: as of today, extensions are turned on by default on Google Chrome's dev channel.

Extensions are small pieces of software that developers can write to customize the way Google Chrome works. We've been working on enabling extensions for a while, but until now, they were hidden behind a developer flag. As of today, this is no longer true. If you're on the dev channel, you can try installing some of our sample extensions.

Removing the flag is the first step in our launch process, and it means we're ready for a few more people to start using extensions-- the kind of adventurous people who populate the dev channel. For this release, we focused on getting most of the basic infrastructure and security pieces in place, in particular our new permission system. However, you should still be cautious and only install extensions from developers you trust.

Going forward, we are working hard towards a release on the Beta Channel. The UI is likely to change as we bring it up to Google Chrome's high standard, and we're still finishing up a few APIs. We've also enlisted some help to get extensions up to speed on Mac and Linux.

From the beginning, we've strived to make extensions super easy to develop. If you'd like to give it a try, you'll find everything you need to get started in our brand new documentation. If you've already written an extension, make sure to read this post about some recent changes.

Posted by Aaron Boodman, Software Engineer