Google has taken the wraps off of a new feature that it expects to arrive in Chrome 80, called Quieter UI, that should make notifications from the browser far less bothersome. In effect, the change will do what its branding entails. Namely, it will ensure that notifications from sites are blocked automatically, as long as Quieter UI is enabled.
Now, sites will still show a pop-up, as shown in the provided example image below. But that pop-up will simply state that the notification has been blocked. On desktop platforms, that will be accompanied by a slashed-out bell icon after the “Notifications blocked” message fades out in the URL Omnibox. For mobile users, a smaller pop-up at the bottom of the UI will denote a similar blocking action.
Clicking on that pop-up will unveil options to unblock the pages notifications from being received. So it will be relatively easy to unblock notifications for sites where those are actually useful. For instance, on sites that are made for notifications specifically, such as messaging.
Quieter UI is automated for those who really need it and easy to turn on otherwise
Once the feature is turned on in Chrome 80, users who already block most notifications won’t actually need to do anything. Quieter UI will automatically kick in for those users by default. That should apply to the overwhelming majority of Chrome users.
As noted above, those sites that don’t need to be blocked can be unblocked by clicking on the slashed-out bell icon. Then the option to disable it for the site will need to be chosen.
Google isn’t going to block notifications for everybody automatically though. Those users who don’t block site notifications frequently will need to turn it on for themselves. That’s easy to accomplish too. Users need to navigate to the settings for the browser and scroll down to notifications. Chrome 80 will present a toggle to “Quiet” notifications.
Flipping that switch turns the feature on, making automatic notifications blocking possible much more easily than the current method.
In Chrome 79, presumably across every platform, users can test out Quieter UI early as well. The feature can be found by navigating to the “chrome://flags” URL and searching for the term “quiet notification.”
Once toggled to enabled in Chrome 79, the feature should work just as it will when it’s released. Chrome’s experimental features can be buggy though. So users shouldn’t expect it to work perfectly yet and may need to follow the above steps to set the feature to “default” if bugs appear.
When is Chrome 80 expected to land with Quieter UI?
Google has scheduled Chrome 80 to land on desktop and mobile platforms from February 4. That date isn’t set in stone. The rollout can take up to several days or weeks before everybody sees the feature.
For Chrome OS users, the wait will be even longer. Chrome OS 80 won’t land until February 11 and the rollout there will be much more staggered. The company’s dedicated operating system often sees updates land well past the scheduled date too.