Slow release of extension updates

[DavidGB]

What about the Microsoft/ Edge ecosystem is causing serious delays in extension updates being released for Edge as compared with for Google Chrome and Firefox when the extension authors sent the updates to the three stores at the same time?

I have a number of extensions which have versions for all of Edge, Chrome and Firefox, and some more that have versions just in both the Chrome and Edge stores. I am noticing that the same updates are taking anything from a week to a nearly a couple of months longer to appear in the Edge extension store.

The most egregious example out of the extensions I have is Video Downloadhelper, a very popular extension with both 'recommended' status and over 2 million installs in both the Chrome and Firefox extension stores. The creator uploaded the update to 7.4 - including new functionality, not just bugfixes - to the Mozilla, Google Chrome and Edge extension stores on the same day in mid December. The update was vetted and accepted and made available in both the Mozilla and Google Chrome stores within two days. In the Edge extension store it STILL hasn't appeared as of now, and only 7.3.8 is available, and the extension creator has no idea why or when it will appear, and can't answer users' questions about when 7.4.0 will appear for Edge other than with 'When Microsoft get around to accepting and uploading it to the store, and I have no idea why it's not there already as they've had it since mid December'.

It makes me feel like an idiot for installing the Edge store versions of extensions in Edge rather than the Chrome store ones. Which then tends to make me feel like an idiot persisting in trying Edge over Google Chrome.

And that isn't the only extension I see this update approval and release delay with, just the longest delay so far. Edge team - you appear to have a quite severe bottleneck in your extension update vetting and releasing pipeline. For people (like me) who have extensions they use and need to use a lot, this is a big black mark against Edge.

[#2]

Good evening,
The problem does not come from microsoft or edge (I have myself an extension on the edge store and the validation usually takes 3 working days.
The only time when the delay is longer (about a week) is during the first submission.
I have two extensions and the delays are always the ones mentioned above (now the time can be increased depending on the complexity of the code).
And since google scans the extensions by a bot, at microsoft it seems to me that it's totally manual (human).

[#3]

@Wittycat 

Hi,

so you are saying that it's the extension developers that are intentionally not updating their extensions on Microsoft addons store?

[#4]

@Wittycat 

You must have autotranslate on, as I did not write in French. The last time I wrote in French would be in 1976, my last year of having to take French at school.

If your extension gets your updates validated and out that quickly, lucky for you, but it certainty is not so for all. I have 16 Edge store extensions installed, plus 15 Google Chrome store ones that aren't available in the Edge store. Many of the 16 from the Edge store are also available in the Google Chrome store, and quite a few of those are in the Firefox store too. Since Firefox extensions moved from XUL to webextensions, a Firefox version is not that much different from a Chrome or Edge version, while Chrome and Edge versions are basically the same in most cases, apart from e.g. Chrome store versions of extensions that download videos from webpages have to have some extra code to stop them working on Youtube, which is something Google insist on for extensions in the Chrome store. Every single Edge extension I have that is also in the Chrome and/or Firefox Store (I do have one that has both Edge and Mozilla versions but not Google) takes longer to have the matching updates released, even though in the cases of the (to me) most important ones they were submitted to all three stores on the same day. The shortest gap is a few that usually have the Edge store version coming out 3 or 4 days later; for several it's anything from a week to two weeks later; and for VDH we're still waiting for the 7.4.0 update in Edge that came out in the Mozilla and Chrome stores in mid December - and the extension author submitted the update to all three stores on the same day in December.

It's annoying enough having to wait several extra days for updates for e.g. Dark Reader, uBlock Origin and Black Menu for Google (especially when the update contains an important bug fix). It's infuriating to have been waiting nearly two months with VDH. For all the extensions that aren't Edge only, I originally had the Chrome store versions in Edge from back before the Edge extension store opened. As they gradually appeared in the Edge store I have been assiduously replacing the Chrome store extensions with the Edge store versions to help support the Edge extension store to succeed. But I'm now seriously thinking about uninstalling the Edge store versions and going back to the Chrome store versions which are identical but release the updates in a timely fashion. But in the most egregiously delayed Edge store update, VDH, unfortunately the Chrome store version is not identical as it has the extra code to disable it on YouTube.

If Microsoft want the Edge extension store to succeed, they really need to sort out this update delay. Otherwise users are liable to bleed away to the Google Chrome store.

[#5]

@DavidGB yes i have reinstalled my laptop and forgot this feature (auto translate). 

in this case i think it must be the complexity of the extension who slow down the process, but do not forget, edge store is in beta state.

And on the "old" edge update was taken by Microsoft store so, i think (maybe) they are for now understaffed and (since now it's chrome extension) not as fast as chrome and firefox who does that for years now.

So i pretty sure it will be better with time so all we can do it's waiting.

But you speak truth (even 3 day in my case is still pretty slow if we compare with other).

@HotCakeX It's more complex, my answer is more : i think some do not do update as fast a the dev (if it's a maintainer (like i maintain css exfil protection), if the dev update firefox and chrome, even if i see it immediately, and upload it 1 hour after him the 3 day will do that the update will arrive after chrome/firefox.

And on the other and an extension like ublock is very complex so it must take some times to review each update since they don't have a bot like Google (since Google have updated the detection bot for year event if Microsoft have one it's news so not as useful).