Google to ditch Chrome’s notification centre on desktops

Google has decided that it is going to remove the Chrome notification centre for the browser on Windows and OS X. The notification centre was first implemented back in 2013 but many people either switch it off, or simply ignore it sitting the in the taskbar. In a post on the Chromium blog, Google confirmed that since so few people use notifications for Chrome on the PC or Mac, it will cease implementing it.

The notification centre was there to deliver Google Now style notifications from Google apps and Chrome extensions to users on the desktop.

Many users found the additional taskbar icon a little irritating (myself included) and ended up disabling Chrome notifications all together. In its blog post, Google explained what the notification centre was for, and why it is going away:

“This past spring, Chrome began supporting push notifications for web pages via the emerging web push standard. However, notifications in Chrome aren't new; Chrome apps and extensions have supported push notifications on desktop since 2010. In some cases, these desktop notifications would appear while users were gone, so in 2013 Chrome launched the notification centre, a place for users to find notifications from Chrome apps and extensions that they’d missed.”

“However, in practice, few users visit the notification centre. To keep Chrome simple, it will be removed from Windows, Mac, and Linux in the upcoming release. The notification centre on Chrome OS will remain unchanged.”

KitGuru Says: I didn't really find Chrome notifications all that useful but then again, I am no longer an Android user these days. Perhaps if all of my Google services were synced up to the Chrome notification centre, I would have found it more useful. Did any of you make use of notifications for Chrome? Are you glad it is being removed on the desktop side?

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