Browser notification prompts, that ask users to subscribe to their site content, are annoying for a lot of people and Chrome and Firefox have finally decided to hide them. Now only a small indicator will be shown on the sites that allow subscription feature and users will decide themselves if they want to accept it.
Through browser notifications subscriptions, websites push content even when users do not visit site. In some of the operating systems, these notifications are shown even when the browser is not actively used.
The basic purpose of these notifications was to keep users engaged but with the over use of it by a lot of site, it became spamming and annoying. At times, it requires users to acknowledge the prompt before dismissing it.
Mozilla conducted a survey which showed that 99% of the browser notification prompts are not accepted, and around 48% of these notifications are actively rejected by visitors.
According to the study, 1.45 billion prompts were displayed on Firefox 63 Release users in one month and only 23.66 million of these prompts were accepted. 500 million people clicked “Not Now” to intentionally decline it.
Notification prompts have been abused by many sites, especially low quality ad networks. They often ask visitors to subscribe to the browser notification before downloading any file, or viewing video or else ask to leave site.
Mozilla is planning to change the browser notification prompts appearance in Firefox and be less annoying through two-step process.
In Firefox 70, notification prompt will have an option of “Never” instead of “Not Now”, to permanently block the notification prompts on sites that are visited frequently
In Firefox 72, notification prompts of all sites will be hidden and only a chat bubble icon will be displayed in the address bar that will indicate that the site allows notifications. If a visitor wants to subscribe to a site, they can click the icon and enable notifications.
Google is also planning to hide these notification prompts in upcoming Chrome version, through a chrome://flags feature called “Quieter notification permission prompts” that can be accessed by pasting this in address bar "chrome://flags/#quiet-notification-prompts". After enabling this flag, notification prompts will be hidden and only a notification, along will bell icon, will be displayed in the address bar. To allow notifications, users will have to click the bell icon that indicates the notification prompt, and enable notifications from the site.
The new changes will be beneficial for all, as they will not spam visitors and also let people easily subscribe to the site if they want to.
Read next: Google Chrome plans to bring back ‘close other tab’ option - at consumers demand
Through browser notifications subscriptions, websites push content even when users do not visit site. In some of the operating systems, these notifications are shown even when the browser is not actively used.
The basic purpose of these notifications was to keep users engaged but with the over use of it by a lot of site, it became spamming and annoying. At times, it requires users to acknowledge the prompt before dismissing it.
Mozilla conducted a survey which showed that 99% of the browser notification prompts are not accepted, and around 48% of these notifications are actively rejected by visitors.
According to the study, 1.45 billion prompts were displayed on Firefox 63 Release users in one month and only 23.66 million of these prompts were accepted. 500 million people clicked “Not Now” to intentionally decline it.
Notification prompts have been abused by many sites, especially low quality ad networks. They often ask visitors to subscribe to the browser notification before downloading any file, or viewing video or else ask to leave site.
Mozilla is planning to change the browser notification prompts appearance in Firefox and be less annoying through two-step process.
In Firefox 70, notification prompt will have an option of “Never” instead of “Not Now”, to permanently block the notification prompts on sites that are visited frequently
In Firefox 72, notification prompts of all sites will be hidden and only a chat bubble icon will be displayed in the address bar that will indicate that the site allows notifications. If a visitor wants to subscribe to a site, they can click the icon and enable notifications.
Google is also planning to hide these notification prompts in upcoming Chrome version, through a chrome://flags feature called “Quieter notification permission prompts” that can be accessed by pasting this in address bar "chrome://flags/#quiet-notification-prompts". After enabling this flag, notification prompts will be hidden and only a notification, along will bell icon, will be displayed in the address bar. To allow notifications, users will have to click the bell icon that indicates the notification prompt, and enable notifications from the site.
The new changes will be beneficial for all, as they will not spam visitors and also let people easily subscribe to the site if they want to.
Read next: Google Chrome plans to bring back ‘close other tab’ option - at consumers demand
