The Chrome 80 update is scheduled for launch February 4 and we expect lots of security and user experience upgrades. One such upgrade is the killing off of Pop-ups and intrusive site notifications.
Chrome announced that site notifications and pop-ups will be blocked by default. Google’s blog post announcing the release date of the Chrome 80 explains that the update includes a “quieter notification permission UI that reduces the interruptiveness of notification permission requests.”
Google reports that notification complaints ranks among the highest complaints it receives from users because most sites greet users with pop-ups on the first visit rather than as contextually necessary.
The feature will automatically block notifications for users who rarely respond to them as well as block prompts on sites will low opt-in.
Firefox had implemented a similar feature and although pop-ups still show, it’s hidden away unobtrusively from the user. Users don’t have to constantly interact with pop-ups instead of actually browsing websites.
Chrome 80 is adopting a similar approach, hiding notifications away under in the URL bar.
The setting can be enabled by users or will be enabled by default when the browser update rolls out worldwide.