As of today, we can install extensions in Safari, from the developer's website or from the Mac App Store. Apple wants developers to leave extensions within the app store. This allows more control and security for Apple, which has control over what each extension does.
As far as users are concerned, in the future we will only be able to go to the Safari extensions from the Safari applications extension. This function appeared for the first time in OS X El Capitan, since then, the extensions are distributed from the Mac App Store itself, in many of the cases, but not in all.
At the moment both options are available. As of December, they will only be able to send extensions to Safari Applications. The extensions that developers distribute from their website will be incompatible from that date.
This does not mean that the extensions that we already have downloaded stop working. In fact, macOS Mojave will accept both formats, as it will see the light when both possibilities are still available. Surely, macOS 10.15 will normalize these actions, which will no longer be available in 12 months.
All the and advantages that we receive with this measure are the following:
- On the one hand, being linked to applications, installation is easier, compatibility is standardized (I remember some 1Password update that gave problems)
- In addition, the installation is safer from the Mac App Store.
Instead, some extensions from small or independent developers will cease to exist, since it may not compensate to have applications in the Apple store. Others may not make sense. An example des Auto Refresh, which must be linked to a Mac application, when today it is not. Finally, in many cases, the applications do not have to be compatible in terms of the language with which they were created, to the current language of the application.
We will see in the coming weeks, what is the reaction of the developers before this measure.
