Hide icon of extension with Chrome 49

Question

It looks we can hide icon of extension for Chrome 48 and older. But after an update of Chrome to version 49 (dev channel), it displays my extension icon :(

I had neither "browser_action" nor "default_icon" in the manifest.json (witch is the tip for Chrome before version 49).

Any of you has the same issue ? How to get hidden the icon next to the address bar ?

Answer 1

This is a (brain-dead if you ask me) change by Chrome team.

Even if you don't have a browser_action, your extension will display an icon (or failing that, a tile with extension name's first letter). If you do not declare a browser_action, it will be greyed out and non-interactive, but will still be there.

The idea is to alert the user that some potentially stealthy extension is installed. As such, only the user is empowered to hide the icon, by right-clicking and selecting "Hide in Chrome Menu".

I'm 100% positive this will result in user confusion, but there's nothing you can do.