How to create a chrome extension without image on toolbar

Question

After reading and understanding how an extension works I tried to create a simple program. Unfortunately, I hit an obstacle because I don't know how to create my extension without image.

I think it is possible because I've seen many extensions without one. So if anyone knows how please help me out. I believe my problem lies in the manifest.json file:

{
  "name": "name",
  "version": "0.1",
  "manifest_version": 2,
  "description": "description",
  "browser_action": {
    "default_icon": "icon.png"
  },
  "background": {
    "scripts": ["popup.js"]
  },
  "permissions": ["tabs", "<all_urls>"]
}

Answer 1

The accepted answer no longer works (because of new behavior in Chrome). There is no way to not show your icon that's a user's choice now.

See this answer for more details

Answer 2

Just remove:

"browser_action": {
  "default_icon": "icon.png"
},

from your manifest.json. You need to pick one OR none (none is your case) of:

"browser_action": {...},
"page_action": {...},