Google permanently removes FTP from Chrome

Google has permanently removed FTP from Chrome. In the latest stable build for the browser, the File Transfer Protocol can no longer be used. Google has been working on this for over a year, and other browsers have done or are doing so.

Support for ftp has been removed from Chrome 95, which has since been released as a stable release. With the removal, users will no longer be able to access directories via an FTP link or download files from there.

Google says it has two reasons to remove ftp from the browser. On the one hand, the feature is not used enough to make active maintenance interesting. The company also says that there are better ftp clients available for download. By no longer supporting the protocol, it is no longer secure, and moreover, there is already a secure alternative with FTP that is encrypted.

Google has been phasing out FTP for some time now. The discussion about this started already in 2014. In 2019 FTP support disappeared from Chromium, and since then Google has gradually removed the functionality. Earlier versions of Chrome removed the flag that could control ftp settings and later users were redirected to a third-party ftp client. Other browsers such as Firefox have since removed ftp or are in the process of doing so.