With its latest update, Google’s open-source Chromium browser project is introducing a so-called ‘quieter UI’ that the developers say will significantly cut down on annoying notification permissions from websites. Being debuted in Chrome 80, the change will bring a “new, quieter notification permission UI that reduces the interruptiveness of notification permission requests”. While the quieter UI will be an opt-in functionality under normal circumstances, Google says it will be automatically enabled for users who generally block notification requests and on sites with very low opt-in rates.
The new feature is available both on desktop and mobile, and can be enabled manually by going over to Settings > Site Settings > Notifications. Do note that to try out the new feature, the basic notification permission has to be ‘On’ in the first place. While it is switched-on by default, users also have the option to switch it off entirely by toggling off the ‘Sites can ask to send notifications’ option.
The quieter UI was first introduced last year in the Canary channel both on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, but it had to be enabled manually by users who wanted to try it out for themselves. According to Google, the feature silently blocks most website notification requests without showing the usual dialog, but still lets users get notifications from the sites that matter to them.
The quieter UI is just one of the new features that Google has been working on to get rid of some of the annoying practices used by a vast majority of websites. As part of its plans, the company says it will also enable additional enforcement against abusive websites using web notifications for ads, malware or deceptive purposes. While there’s no exact ETA for that just yet, the company says it will happen sometime later this year.
