How to Enable Google Chrome’s Quiet Notifications Feature

One of the biggest changes coming to users with the next stable version of Google Chrome is called “quieter notifications.”

In just a few words, this is Google’s very own way of dealing with notifications that users come across when browsing the web. Because these notifications are often intrusive, and websites end up abusing them, Google would equip its browser with a new UI which the company promises “reduces the instructiveness of notification permission requests.”

So basically, instead of seeing notifications on page load, Google Chrome will group those considered to be intrusive in a new UI that will be available via a dedicated bell icon in the address bar. Clicking this icon will allow you to view the blocked notifications.

Google says that once this feature will go live, users will be able to enable it manually, but at the same time, it’ll also enable it for users who often block notifications anyway and on pages that abuse the notification system.

The new quieter notifications UI will go live in Chrome 80, but it can already be enabled in the latest Chrome Canary build (the feature doesn’t seem to make any different for now, as it’s most likely just an early implementation, but I expect it to start working normally in the coming days).

To enable it you must first activate an experimental flag that Google has specifically added in the latest Chrome Canary build – version 81.0.4021.0.

Next, fire up the browser, and in the address bar type the following code to launch the experimental flags screen:

What you need to do next is click the enabled mode and then reboot the browser to activate the new UI.

As I said, the feature isn’t ready just yet, but when it is, you should be able to see new options added for quieter notifications at the following path:

The next stable version of the browser is Chrome 80 and is expected in February with the quieter notifications UI included. The new feature will also be included in the next stable update for mobile devices.

Most likely, other Chromium-based browsers, including Microsoft Edge, will adopt the same feature in the coming releases. The stable version of Microsoft Edge is due on January 15, but this quieter UI is expected to land in a later build.

Google says that it’s also working on additional protections for users against notifications that are used for malicious purposes, such as spreading malware. However, more information in this regard will be provided later this year, and these controls won’t be part of Chrome 80.

“Later in 2020 we plan to enable additional enforcement against abusive websites using web notifications for ads, malware or deceptive purposes. This enforcement will be described in detail in a future blog post,” Google says.