Franz: Support chrome extensions

[CCRDude]

It would be useful to enhance the browsing experience in Franz with standard Chrome browser extensions.

Feature Description

• Franz uses Google Chrome instances for services.
• Google Chrome supports a wide range of extensions.
• Users could customize their experience using existing Chrome plugins.

I tried to copy extensions over from a regular Chrome installation into ...../Franz/Partitions/service-xxxxx, and added Secure Preferences, but there are probably more steps involved in activating them. A shortcut to navigate to chrome://extensions/ would be useful (such a link within a Franz service does not work, at least not when trying to message it to myself in slack, then clicking on it).

Motivation and Context

• Mouse gestures (as an example) would allow actions like back without cluttering the UI with browser elements.
• Since all services need passwords, a password manager integration would be of use to many.
  Both could easily be done by allowing the user to add existing extensions.

[CCRDude]

One idea that came after submitting the issue above would be to allow references to https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/... to open within the own window instead of opening the external browser for them. That way, we might be able to cheat by sending us extension links through each service somehow, then click and install extensions.

[adlk]

• Electron does not support the full chrome extensions API. There is an compatibility layer but I haven't had the time to test this yet.

[brendanjones]

+1 to this, if it's possible. It'd be fantastic to have LastPass working in Franz.

[darrendmiller]

I would love this too! I would love to use Gmelius with Google Inbox inside Franz!

[DOCPROF]

• 1 For create a Chromebook application(ChromeOs).

[MarcusSpecht]

Whoever makes chrome extensions work first will be my goto solution. Subscribed to issue to make sure I get updated once this works.

[MrNeilRobbins]

+1 for app.grammarly.com support. Thanks!

[MarcusSpecht]

+1 for password manager extensions and the awesome markdown-here for fancy emails and code snippets.

[sreed101]

+1

[ulgens]

Anything new? :small_airplane:

[raphaklaus]

I'm using Franz in my company for messaging, like Slack, e-mail, etc. I have some extensions like Grammarly and Google Translate that gives me more productivity on a day-to-day basis. I would be absolutely great if I could manage which extension is enabled for each service.

Also, it seems to have some blocking issues to achieve that, take a look: https://gist.github.com/alexstrat/0bc561e769664fc9ab520b73c0a2dd2c

[tenfourty]

Looks like lots of these blocking issues have been resolved, has there been any progress on this?

[Ramesh-X]

I also have some crucial extensions in chrome. I would love if franz comes as a chrome extension.

Any updates on this issue..?

[dariuszpaluch]

+1

[dxamb]

+1. being able to use Gmelius would be great.

[greg-wolff]

+1 even providing any type of workaround here would be nice. perhaps there's some way to install extensions on chromium and then have that waterfall towards franz?

[incace]

Just another shameless +1. Is there any current workarounds available? I would love to use some tools that I use every day in Gmail among other services, but I always have to switch back to a chrome instance to use them due to this limitation.

[romskidd]

+1 that would be awesome

[matt-bailey]

+1 Being able to use Chrome extensions such as https://simpl.fyi/gmail/ would be amazing!

[dehyde]

+1 on chrome extensions
Trello and GMail have amazing extensions that really boost the workflow

[brunofin]

+1 Grammarly is the reason why I use Vivaldi with many chat applications tabs pinned and set to restore once opening the browser, exclusively for that, and Chrome for normal navigation.

But I think for that, Franz would need to be built upon Chromium instead of Electron...

[gilgoldzweig]

Any update if this is possible and if so, what is needed for this to be done

[nevvkid]

+1 for having chrome extensions available in franz.
We want to use hubspot inside of our g suite mailboxes.

[hashtafak]

Interesting: https://github.com/getstation/electron-chrome-extension

[cmccandless]

Any update on this?

[Razva]

+1 for having chrome extensions available in franz.
We want to use hubspot inside of our g suite mailboxes.

Exactly what I want to do. Any luck with Franz?

[fermmm]

I want this feature to be able to use Dark Reader extension (brings dark mode to all websites without ruining design) currently Franz's applications are the only thing that does not have dark mode in my computer

Edit: If you want dark reader use Ferdi instead of Franz (Ferdi is the community fork of Franz.
In your search engine type: "ferdi github" under "releases" download the last version, only the last version has "universal dark mode"

[jesuisnicolasdavid]

+1

[Twanneman]

+1

Consider that :

• it's good for productivity
• one less app / no more switching

it would enable so much more functionalities...

[aboimpinto]

Looks like this can be done in electron using the BrowserWindow api this is the code for electron I will like to help to add this feature https://github.com/electron/electron/blob/5dcc354432bd9b6ca09c5cb887eac3a216820b8a/lib/browser/chrome-extension.js#L360

(this message was copied from Rambox where they didn't implement yet this feature but looks like it's possible)

[mattsday]

Looks like this is an encouraging direction too:
https://www.electronjs.org/docs/api/extensions

Although not in an electron release, certain recipes could bundle extensions which would be handy e.g. for corporate apps that require specific extensions to allow access to work (my org has blocked my Calendar access to anything not running a specific security extension which exists for Chrome and Firefox, but not Electron today).