Google Chrome Socket API in extensions

by

From the Chrome docs:

Packaged apps can act as a network client for TCP and UDP connections.

No, extensions do not have access to the socket API, and they aren’t likely to ever get it.

Your confusion is understandable, since what Google called “packaged apps” used to be nothing but glorified extensions with an icon on the home screen. However, Google is now driving a much wider divide between extensions and apps.

Extensions used to have a subset of the functionality the apps did, but now there is mutually exclusive functionality in each. Extensions are meant for enhancing normal Web browsing, whereas apps are meant to be used as stand-alone tools that do not interfere with normal browsing. If you look at the API lists for apps and for extensions, you’ll see that the list is vastly different: apps have the powerful hardware- and OS-centric APIs like socket, usb, and bluetooth, while extensions have a monopoly on browser-centric APIs like tabs, cookies, and bookmarks.

More Related Contents:

  1. Can you access chrome:// pages from an extension?
  2. Obtaining Chrome Extension ID for development
  3. Chrome extension content script re-injection after upgrade or install
  4. Chrome extension is not loading on browser navigation at YouTube
  5. Access global js variables from js injected by a chrome extension
  6. Custom protocol handler in chrome
  7. Chrome extension: accessing localStorage in content script
  8. Port error while changing chrome extension from manifest v1 to v2
  9. Is it possible to require npm modules in a chrome extension ?
  10. Modify HTTP responses from a Chrome extension
  11. sending message to chrome extension from a web page
  12. Optionally inject Content Script
  13. Access window variable from Content Script [duplicate]
  14. Permission ” is unknown or URL pattern is malformed
  15. How is the Chrome Extension ID of an unpacked extension generated?
  16. How do you integrate Universal Analytics in to Chrome Extensions?
  17. Chrome extension login best practices
  18. chrome extension: how to send ‘keydown’ event to page’s input?
  19. How to migrate manifest version 2 to v3 for chrome extension?
  20. Does content_scripts matches “chrome-extension://*/*” work?
  21. How to trigger click on a button
  22. CORS Chrome Extension with manifest version 2
  23. Persistent background page on demand or an event page that doesn’t unload?
  24. On page load event in Chrome extensions
  25. cannot create item with duplicate context menu id in extension
  26. jQuery in Google Chrome Content Script?
  27. Can I hide my extension’s icon by default?
  28. How to send message FROM native app TO Chrome extension?
  29. Chrome extension page action appearing outside of address bar
  30. How to debug chrome devtools panel extension?

Leave a Comment