Websites in Android O will feature notification channels through Google Chrome

Abner Li | Jul 28 2017 - 9:19 am PT

Android O features a huge redesign of notifications for both end users and developers. Google wants the latter group to add notification channels to give users more control in apps, as well as a centralized location for quicker access. In Android 8.0, Chrome will extend notification channels to all websites.

This feature is not yet live in any current version of Chrome for Android, while the Chromium commit describing the upcoming functionality does not specify a version.

At the moment, Chrome in Android O features high-level channels for Browser, Downloads, Incognito, Media, and Sites. Meanwhile, within Chrome (Settings → Site settings), there is a list of sites broken down by requested permissions. Heading to an individual site that requests a notification only provides users with the option to allow/block.

In the future, the same setting will open a system notification channel page with options to set Importance, Override Do Not Disturb, Show notification dot, and more. At the moment, it’s unclear whether the page will be directly accessible from system Settings or whether users have to head through Chrome first.

Each site now has their own channel, allowing user-customization of how notifications from different sites appear, and improving discoverability of the toggle to block or re-allow notifications from a specific site (previously only visible in Chrome site settings).

Hopefully, this feature will be ready by Android O’s public release later this summer. The addition of notification channels for sites speaks to Google’s continued efforts to brings web apps on equal footing with native ones.