What are the update timelines for web browser plugins?

Today, a browser extension can be just as powerful as a traditional application, and some modern browsers like Arc Browser have even made this their trademark feature, with their famous "boosts".

This is why publishers like Google, Microsoft, and Apple pay very close attention to the plugins that arrive on their stores, but also to every update!

Since PerfectPost launched, we've surpassed 15,000 active users, and learned a lot about the "wonderful" world of plugins along the way!

What you need to know

The first thing to know before talking about validation delays for extension updates is that nothing is set in stone.

Delays can change overnight, but above all… delays are sometimes based on who you are.

In reality, this is already the case in the world of mobile applications.

For example, on the Apple Store, an app that Apple considers "popular", or that they want to highlight, will undergo more thorough validations and checks, because they want to maintain a high level of quality for these apps.

And this same mechanism can also be found in browser extension stores!

By browser

Obviously, each browser has its own strategy (manual, automatic, etc.) and its own timelines:

Chrome

Our experience is automatic validation in under 12h, but generally speaking, if your extension isn't validated within 24h, you can be sure it will require manual validation before it goes live.

Which can take a full week…

And don't bother trying to contact their support, because in their terms they reserve the right to take 3 weeks to publish an extension, so none of your requests will be considered before 3 weeks.

Two things are guaranteed to trigger a manual review:

• A permission change in the manifest
• A major modification to the code (e.g., refactoring)

Warning: once submitted, you cannot cancel that version and you must wait for the final decision before making changes.

Firefox

The validation process is automatic and very lightweight, it's even possible that no real validation is actually performed.

Acceptance is instant.

Edge

The problem with Microsoft is that the validation duration varies between 7 and 15 days… But we've never had a rejection from them, so it's hard to know what they're actually checking.

Thanks to the Microsoft Partner Center, you can have 3 versions of the extension:

• a "live" version
• a "in draft" version
• a "in review" version

And you can update the draft version as much as you want.

However, if you ever want to make a change to the version being reviewed, you can cancel the submission, but you'll have to wait 4 hours for the cancellation to take effect…

Then you can start a new 7-15 day cycle!

Another problem: Microsoft doesn't offer email notifications to track the progress of their review process, so you need to remember to check regularly…

Safari

The validation process is exactly the same as for iOS or Mac OS apps, which makes sense since to build a Safari extension, it must necessarily be attached to an iOS or Mac OS app.

So you have an actual person installing and testing the extension, with all the unpredictability that comes from how the tester interprets your app's features...

In short, the validation delay depends on the time at which you submit your update (taking into account the time difference). Example:

• At 7 PM (French time), it's 1 PM in California, the validation won't be completed until the next day
• In the morning, the update could be validated by the evening (French time)

As always with Apple, once the review is rejected, you can exchange messages with the person without restarting the entire validation process.

If your experience has been different, feel free to share it in the comments, to give more context to future readers of this article!

Deployment strategy

To speed up development and generate updates (builds) for the extension, we have a Github Action script, which is triggered manually and generates a zip for Edge, Firefox, and Chrome.

Then the script automatically uploads the update to the respective stores!

Updates follow the Chrome Web Store validation cycle:

If commits are pending deployment and the Chrome Web Store has validated the latest version, we trigger the build and send a new update.

Small, regular updates help keep validations fast

This allows us to have:

• Instant publishing on Firefox
• A new validation on Google
• An "In draft" version on Edge, which will go into validation as soon as the previous one is complete

Safari

For Safari, the entire submission process is manual, and takes us about 20 minutes:

• Compiling with Xcode
• Uploading the file to appstoreconnect.apple.com
• Waiting for the build to be processed (about 15 minutes)
• Certifying that the build doesn't use specific encryption,
• Creating a new version of the app
• Adding the release notes

Then finally submitting for review!