The Google Chrome browser will provide individual websites with their own Notification Channels on devices running Android O, as suggested by one newly uncovered Chromium commit. The framework that the Mountain View, California-based tech giant is apparently looking to implement is similar to the one used for categorizing Media and Downloads tabs within the browser, with the solution allowing each individual domain to have its own directory. Google’s popular Internet browser will apparently be looking to make a similar distinction while serving notifications in Android O, being able to differentiate between various websites and (de)prioritize their notifications based on user preferences.
Tapping on some website’s notification settings on a device running the latest version of Chrome on both the stable and experimental channel currently brings you to a general “Sites” channel that allows you to determine the priority of general website notifications but without providing you with any additional control over this system behavior. Following the introduction of Google’s upcoming functionality, the same course of action should present you with a section for website-specific notification settings, allowing you to (e.g.) prioritize notifications from Twitter and deprioritize those from Google+. Refer to the gallery below to see a comparison of Chrome’s notification channel settings in Nougat and those that will be available in the app on a device running a stable version of Android O.
The Alphabet-owned company has yet to mention this particular feature in any official capacity, suggesting that the functionality may not be live as soon as Android O is released next month. The current versions of Chrome technically allow for website-specific notification controls that can be accessed with some tinkering, but they only support enabling and disabling notifications from particular domains, whereas the service is soon set to fully implement Android O’s native support for Notification Channels instead of relying on that binary approach to notification management. Google has already been updating Chrome with support for various Android O features including Notification Channels in recent months, and the company will presumably continue these efforts in the coming weeks. The fourth and final Developer Preview of Android O with near-final system images and finalized system behaviors rolled out earlier this month and the OS itself is set to hit the stable channel by the end of August, with owners of the Google Pixel lineup and compatible Nexus devices being the first to receive it.
