Google’s Chrome version 80 will begin blocking website push notifications. While Chrome will allow users to opt-in to the push blocking, some sites will be automatically enrolled into the blocking feature. Publishers and developers are urged to read Google’s best practices to avoid having their push notifications blocked.
Automatic Push Notification Blocking
There are two situation in which Chrome will blog push notifications.
The first scenario is for users who consistently block push notification. Those users will not have to manually turn on push notification blocking. Blocking will be enabled by default.
The second situation is for websites that have low opt-in rates to their push-notifications.
Automatic enrollment in push notification blocking will increase as Google gathers data.
Penalties for Abusive Websites
Google warned that websites that abuse push notification to deliver ads or malware or who use them for “deceptive purposes.”
The penalty details will be announced in the future.
Quiet UI
Chrome will be introducing what it calls a Quiet UI. The purpose is to alert users that a push notification has been blocked and to give users the opportunity to unblock the notification.
This is an example of the quiet UI:
When Will Push Notification Blocking Arrive?
Push notification blocking will become effective with Chrome 80. Chrome 80 is scheduled https://www.chromestatus.com/features/schedule to be released on February 4, 2020.
Web developers who wish to experience the new feature can download Chrome Canary, a developer version of Chrome with the latest features on it. Chrome warns that Canary can be unstable. I have used Canary for testing purposes and haven’t experienced problems with it.
How to Prevent Push Notification Blocking
Chrome recommends that publishers test their sites using Chrome Canary to experience how Chrome will interact with their site when Chrome version 80 rolls out in less than a month.
Google has published best practices and a video about how to use push notification in a way that will be seen by users and not automatically blocked.
“First, we recommend that web developers test their site’s permission request flow with the quieter notification permission UI, by enabling it manually in chrome://settings/content/notifications.
At the time of writing, the feature is being rolled out gradually to Canary, Dev, and Beta channels, and can be force-enabled in chrome://flags/#quiet-notification-prompts in Chrome 80 and later.
Second, we recommend that developers follow best practices for requesting the notification permission from users. Websites that ask users to sign up for web notifications when they first arrive often have very low accept rates. Instead, we recommend that websites wait until users understand the context and see benefit in receiving notifications before prompting for the permission.”
Read: Google’s Developer Page for push notification best practices
Read the official announcement: Introducing Quieter Permission UI for Notifications
Watch a Video about improving permission acceptance rates: