I have a Chrome extension available on the Chrome Web Store. I wanted to submit a new version, but it got rejected because it uses the ‘tabs’ permission, which is not required. My extension is designed to save and restore users’ browser window layouts, including all opened tabs. To achieve this functionality, I use the chrome.windows.getAll({populate: true}) function to retrieve all opened windows and their corresponding tab URLs. There is no content or background scripting in my extension. In my opinion, the ‘tabs’ permission is still necessary to ensure the extension functions properly.

By the way, I have updated my extension at least 20 times before with this permission added, without any issues. In the new version, I haven’t made any changes to the code related to handling tab URLs.

I’ve tried to submit a new version (withouth changes) and wrote a much more detailed explanation on the Chrome Web Store listing explaining why I need to use that permission, but it got rejected again.

manifest.json:

{
  "name": "...",
  "description": "...",
  "version": "1.2.5",
  "permissions": ["tabs", "storage"],
  "action": {
    "default_icon": {
      "16": "images/icons/icon16.png",
      "24": "images/icons/icon24.png"
    },
    "default_popup": "popup.html"
  },
  "icons": {
    "32": "images/icons/icon32.png",
    "48": "images/icons/icon48.png",
    "128": "images/icons/icon128.png"
  },
  "manifest_version": 3
}