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Google Chrome adds support for Windows 10’s native notifications

Google Chrome is the favorite browser of millions of users, and a huge part of that is that it works on just about every major platform. Slowly, Google has been making Chrome feel more native wherever it takes up residence, and with Chrome 68, that expands to Windows.

Chrome has, obviously, been available on Windows for years and has supported notifications on the platform for just as long. However, with recent versions of Windows, the way the OS delivers notifications has matured. It works far better now, but Chrome hasn’t evolved to keep up, instead opting to using its own notification system.

With Chrome 68, this changes. Spotted first by Thurrott, Google has finally turned on native support for Windows 10 notifications which has been in testing for several months now. Google debuted native notification support on macOS back in Chrome 59.

Over the coming days, Chrome will default to sending notifications over Windows Action Center. Thurrott explains a couple big benefits of the feature for Windows users as well:

For one, Chrome using Windows 10’s native notifications means you can now apply Windows 10’s custom notification settings to the browser. You can choose to limit the number of notifications that are displayed, as well as their priority in the action center. And secondly, you can avoid getting distracted when you are in Windows 10’s Focus Assist (Quiet Hours) mode.

Currently, this feature is rolled out to about 50% of Chrome 68 users on Windows. Obviously, you’ll need to be running Windows 10 specifically in order to use it, and you can always revert back to Chrome’s notification system if it’s not your cup of tea.


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