Chrome 80 adding quieter permissions UI to deny notification requests

Sites today increasingly ask to send notifications about new articles and other alerts. To address this “common complaint,” Chrome 80 next month introduces a new “quieter notification permission UI.”

The goal is to reduce the “interruptiveness of notification permission requests,” and tackle the trend where users are prompted to allow on first visit rather than at “contextually relevant moments.”

Instead of a pop-up at the right of the Omnibox on desktop asking for permission, “Notifications blocked” text slides out briefly and condenses to a crossed-out bell icon. On mobile, a bar slides up from the bottom of the screen with a similar message.

On first launch, there is a help dialog that explains the functionality: “You usually block notifications. To let the site notify you, click here.”

When version 80 of Chrome rolls out, you can manually opt-in to the new UI or disable it entirely on Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, and iOS:

To enroll, the toggle ‘Sites can ask to send notifications’ must be enabled in Settings > Site Settings > Notifications, then the checkbox ‘Use quieter messaging’ must be checked.

Meanwhile, Google will also automatically enable Chrome’s quiet notification UI under two conditions:

• Users who repeatedly deny notifications across websites will be automatically enrolled in the quieter notifications UI.
• Sites with very low acceptance rates will be automatically enrolled in quieter prompts. They will be automatically unenrolled once the user experience is improved.

It’s currently rolling out to the Beta, Dev, and Canary channels, and can be force-enabled with chrome://flags/#quiet-notification-prompts in Chrome 80. Automated enrollment on stable will be “enabled gradually after the release while we gather user and developer feedback.” Google today provided recommendations and best practices for site developers.