This is the first Chrome setting I change on every phone and computer

Every time I set up a new Android phone or Android tablet, iPhone or iPad, Windows or Mac computer with Chrome as the main browser, there’s one setting I immediately and invariably change. This is a non-negotiable for me, whether the device I’m setting up is for me or, even more so, for my parents or other family members.

What is it? The simple explanation is that it’s the setting that stops every website from asking me to allow it to send me notifications. This trick doesn’t just stop the notifications from showing up; it rips off the problem from its roots and forbids sites from even surfacing that annoying “Allow notifications” pop-up each time I visit a new website. A proper sanity saver.

Between cookie agreements, login reminders, notifications, ads, and other pop-ups, browsing today’s web has become more annoying than ever. Some of these, I can tolerate: cookies are important for privacy, while ads are the reason people like me have a job writing words online. The rest, though, is just too much. No, Trip Advisor, I really don’t want to log in; I’m just browsing the best attractions in Lisbon! And no, I don’t want my supermarket to send me notifications, nor do I want my bank to have access to my location.

Most people accept the endless pop-ups, though, and find themselves repeatedly clicking Block to stop sites from sending them notifications. Except one day, like all of you, after a million blocks, I inevitably made the mistake of clicking Allow because I was in a hurry, and I ended up getting a flux of daily notifications from that random furniture store where I bought one ceiling light. No, I don’t need a new light every day, thank you very much.

Of course, I can always go back and disable these or even turn off all notifications from Chrome on a system level, but that doesn’t stop the darned notification pop-up from coming up every time I visit a new site. Worse yet, if it’s my parents using their phones or computers: They’ll click Allow on anything and end up with a deluge of daily notifications from every site they go to.

That’s why blocking the pop-up from the start is the real solution. It makes browsing today’s web a little more tolerable and completely cancels the risk of mistakenly allowing a random site to constantly ping our phones and computers.

To completely stop the pop-up from appearing on mobile (Android, iOS, and iPadOS), you have to go to Chrome’s Settings > Site Settings > Notifications and disable the first Notifications toggle. If it shows as Blocked, you’re good to go.

On desktop, you just add one more step to this: Go to Chrome’s Settings > Privacy and security > Site settings > Notifications and choose Don’t allow sites to send notifications.

And that’s all you need to do to stop those pesky “xyz.com wants to show notifications” pop-ups from every website you ever visit. I highly recommend you do this on your parents’ phones, too; the peace of mind that follows is invaluable.

While changing this notification setting, you probably noticed that there are other menus under Site Settings, and yes, those work the same way as the notifications menu. Basically, you can stop the pop-up for location sharing, camera access, and microphone access. To do this, repeat the steps above but pick Location, Camera, or Microphone instead of Notifications. Disabling these is one of my favorite ways of reducing unnecessary clicks, pauses, and disruptions while browsing. Obviously, my work requires me to visit a lot of random new sites every day, so this helps me tremendously.

If you turn these off, though, no website will ever be able to ask you for these permissions; the pop-up just doesn’t appear. So whenever I want to grant a website any of these permissions (like Google Meet, for example, because I take calls in Chrome on my computer), I have to temporarily enable the pop-up, approve that request, and then go back to disable the pop-up. I only have to do it once, though, and then Chrome remembers that this site is allowed access to my camera and microphone, even if those are blocked for every other site. This workaround is a small price to pay in exchange for peace of mind, though, if you ask me.