The Quieter notification permission prompts flag is now working in Chrome on Android also and is blocking notification requests by websites automatically when the flag is enabled.
Both Mozilla and Google want to curb notification spam in Firefox and Chrome browsers. Mozilla already has run experiments in Nightly version of Firefox and recently announced it will block notification requests by default in Firefox 72 on the desktop if there is no interaction from the user.
Google on the other hand, which is also working to address the issue, is testing a solution for notification spam in Chrome browser behind Quieter notification permission prompt flag on desktop and Android. While the flag already works on the desktop in Chrome and Chromium Edge, today we noticed it is also functioning in Chrome Canary on Android.
FYI, a couple of days back Chromium team has added android strings for the flag, you can also expect them to offer options in Notifications Settings in the future to control Permission requests.
For the unknown, the experimental feature when enabled replaces notification model dialog with a quieter version.
For Chrome to block website notification Prompts quietly on Android now
1. Ensure you’re using latest Chrome Canary 80.0.3969.0 or later
2. Visit chrome://flags page and search for “quiet”, for the Quieter notification permission prompts flag, select “Enabled” or one of the below options:
Enabled (force quiet notifications)
Enabled (force heads-up notifications)
Enabled (force mini-infobars)
3. After selecting an option, tap on the relaunch, if the browser doesn’t restart, visit device settings and force stop Chrome Canary and reopen it to apply the changes.
4. Visit any news site that requests notifications to receive an info bar at the bottom “Notifications blocked. Details”, clicking on conveys, ” Notifications are automatically blocked for all sites except ones you allow”, if you want to see that site notifications, click “Allow Site”.
Related articles:
Firefox 68 requires User interaction for Push Notifications
Firefox 59 offers New Settings to block Notifications
For any web developers looking for a more user-friendly way to ask users to grant web notifications, and also reduce the likelihood of your website being penalized by Chrome for having a low opt-in rate, my company OneSignal has introduced several improved prompting flows. We also blogged about best practices here: https://onesignal.com/blog/web-push-permission-prompting-changes/