Those annoying notifications from random sites you forgot even existed are finally going away. Google Chrome is cleaning the house and automatically turning off permissions for websites you no longer visit. Henceforth, there'll be no more spammy alerts. You can always re-enable them for your favorite sites at anytime. But chances are that you’ll not miss them.
Google saved you the stress of managing your notifications
Normally, when you visit a website, it might prompt you to allow notifications. If you tap Allow, that site can send you alerts in different forms, even when you’re not on the site.
If weeks or months go by and you stop visiting it, the browser now assumes that you’re no longer interested. So it revokes the permission, as announced by Google in a blog post. Quite ironically, you'll receive a notification informing you about affected sites and you can review the action.
Data indicates that users frequently receive a high volume of notifications, resulting in minimal engagement and high disruption. Less than 1% of all notifications receive any interaction from users. But notifications can be genuinely valuable and helpful. Therefore, this feature will only revoke permissions for sites when there is very low user engagement and a high volume of notifications being sent.
Google
If you actually do want to keep getting those alerts, manually turn them back on.
Go to Chrome’s settings. Then go to Privacy and Security > Site settings → Notifications. Alternatively, visit the Safety check to review sites.
There's an exception to installed web apps. Chrome won't automatically disable alerts from them because you’ve made a deliberate choice to keep them.
These are websites you’ve added to your device like real apps. You'll use the Add to Home Screen option in the browser’s menu or Install pop up button.
Related: Chrome For Android Now Adds Podcast-Style Summaries to Any Webpage
A better experience on connected displays is here
Besides notification silencing, Chrome for Android is getting another new feature to make it behave more like a computer browser when your phone is connected to bigger screens.
Usually, when you plug your phone into a monitor, many websites still look like they do on your phone. It's almost like Chrome “tells” them it’s still running on a phone.
Google is adding a setting that automatically makes the browser request the desktop version of websites when it detects you’re using a bigger screen.
It's part of the company's broader plans for Android’s Desktop Mode, a new feature in Android 16 that lets drag windows around and open multiple apps in separate windows.
You’ll have to turn on the feature manually to use it. However, it's still experimental as it's part of the first Quarterly Platform Release. Only a few people currently have it, mainly Pixel phone users running the Android 16 beta.
To access it, open Chrome on your Android phone and visit chrome://flags. In the flags menu, search for Request Desktop User-Agent on external displays. Then enable it. Relaunch the browser to effect the changes.
