What you need to know
- Google announced that Chrome for Android will soon receive an update that expands Safety Check’s notification capabilities.
- This update makes it so the feature can automatically revoke the notification permissions from websites users rarely engage with.
- Since Safety Check debuted last year, Google has been upgrading it with scam notification protections and more.
Google has reportedly made an announcement for Chrome on Android users that may bring a little more cleanliness to your browser.
Google announced that it will soon expand Chrome on Android’s Safety Check capabilities to include website notifications, per The Verge. This feature is reportedly automatic and will alert users to it via a notification on Android. According to Google, Safety Check will soon remove the permissions for notifications from websites that users don’t typically interact with.
The browser will deliver the following alert: “Chrome unsubscribed you from notifications.”
If there are multiple websites whose notifications have gone without interaction for a long time, the alert will tell you how many. The notification lets users say “Got it” to dismiss it, or they can “Review” it. Reviewing the alert drops you into Safety Check’s menu within the browser’s settings. From there, you’ll see a “permissions removed from X site(s).” Users can, again, see which sites Chrome automatically revoked permissions from, and redistribute them if necessary.
The publication highlights an exception, such as Chrome on Android won’t revoke notification permissions from web apps on your phone. Google states, “We’ve already been testing this feature. Our test results show a significant reduction in notification overload with only a minimal change in total notification clicks.”
Keeping things clean
The company reportedly hadn’t explicitly stated when users on Android can expect this feature to arrive. However, considering the timing of the announcement, a Friday (Oct 10), we may not see this until next week, if anything. But there’s also a chance this waits until the next major Android feature drop. It also seems this update is headed for Chrome on desktop, too, per the post.
Safety Check was a huge update that hit Google Chrome last year, and since then, updates have continued to roll out for Android users. The most recent update that regarded notifications in Chrome had to tap Gemini for a little help. Google wanted to increase the browser’s ability to ward off potential scams through notifications. The app’s on-device would scam notifications for signs of scams and fraud, which was backed by Google’s research.
Chrome will flag a notification as a scam and give the user the option to unsubscribe to avoid an issue. Similarly, users were given another Chrome for Android update that lets them easily “unsubscribe” from notifications, as part of another Safety Check patch.
