Google Chrome 80 Important Push Notification Updates

It’s official: Google Chrome 80 is here and with it comes some updates we wanted to call your attention to. In particular, there are two features that deal with push notifications that you should all be aware of.

One deals with quieter opt-in prompts that we first told you all about in an update late last year. The other is a potential change that may come to Chrome in a future update that deals with notification triggers.

Here is everything you need to know about Google Chrome 80 as it relates to your web push notifications.

Quieter Opt-In Prompts

What started as a trial feature has gone live in the latest version of Google Chrome. As Google calls it, notification prompts will now be “quieter” for some users in an effort to promote a more positive user experience.

There are a few scenarios in which these quieter prompts will display, two of which are based on user behavior, and one that is a manual option:

1. Websites with already low opt-in rates: For websites that receive very low opt-in rates, Chrome will automatically show the quiet opt-in prompt. This will help cut down on annoying or spammy websites that do not use web push notifications for the right reasons. According to Google, this enrollment will happen gradually as they continue to gather data on websites and their opt-in rates.

2. Users who frequently block notification requests: For any specific user who frequently denies notifications, they will automatically be shown the quieter opt-in prompt.

3. Via settings: Any user also has the capability now to turn on quieter opt-in prompts in their settings.

What We Recommend

Now that Chrome 80 is here, we recommend that you stay proactive in order to ensure you don’t see any major impacts from this change. Keep in mind that if you are currently experiencing a good amount of opt-ins, you shouldn’t need to worry about Chrome switching you to a quiet opt-in prompt.

If you are concerned about the quiet prompt, regardless of what your opt-in rates are, here are a few things you can do:

1. Enable a custom opt-in prompt:

With a custom opt-in prompt enabled at your site, users will see this prompt before the native prompt. This can help save your website from a low opt-in rate, as users who hit no on your custom prompt will not be shown the native prompt. Users who hit yes will be shown the native prompt and are likely to allow your notifications since they already agreed via your custom prompt.

Use this custom prompt to inform users as to what your notifications will be. Without any info, a user is less likely to opt-in. If they know what they will be getting, they are more likely to say okay.

2. Enable custom logic:

You can also choose to set up some custom logic as to when your native (or custom) opt-in prompt will display. By default, the native prompt is shown immediately to all users who land at your site. With custom logic, you can control when this prompt is first displayed. Here’s a quick chart detailing the 5 options you have for showing your prompt:

You can learn more about site-wide logic as well as page specific logic to understand all of the options you have.

What to Do if You Do Switch to a Quiet Prompt

If Google Chrome does switch your site to a quiet opt-in prompt as a result of very low opt-in rates, you do have the ability to be unenrolled if your acceptance rate improves. You will do this by improving your opt-in prompt user experience- which we talked about above by enabling either custom logic or a custom opt-in prompt (or both).

Google has stated that automatic enrollment into the quiet opt-in prompt will be based on usage statistics. You can view your individual site statistics via our dashboard, which includes your opt-in rate percentage.

Origin Trial: Notification Triggers

This notification triggers feature is just an origin trial, meaning it is currently being tested by web developers and is not a live feature just yet. However, it’s a pretty cool feature that we are excited about that we hope will come to Chrome soon.

As you know, certain notifications that you send are time sensitive. Perhaps it is a triggered notification about an event that is coming up, or maybe it’s a campaign advertising a flash sale that is only happening for a short period of time. Regardless of the reason, the timing is crucial.

While you do have the ability to optimize your notifications by timezone, there are things that are out of your control like if a subscriber’s device is in airplane mode or if they have no network connection. With this new feature, you would be able to schedule push notifications in advance with the operating system delivering the notification at the correct time, regardless of if the device has no network connection, is in airplane mode, or even in battery saver mode.

We will be monitoring this closely and will keep you updated if it moves to a live feature in a future version of Google Chrome!

Wrapping Up

With Google Chrome 80 comes the release of quieter opt-in prompts. We think that this will have a positive impact on web push notifications as it relates to brands, publishers, and others who use web push for the right reasons. You should never spam your audience or deliver bad push notifications. This latest update will help cut out the bad push notifications, giving users more confidence at other websites that the push notifications they receive will be beneficial.

We recommend taking a look at your current opt-in rates and considering switching to either a custom opt-in prompt, some custom opt-in prompt logic, or both. This way, you are sure to be protected from getting switched to the quiet prompt.

If you have any questions about this update, or about getting started with some custom opt-in prompts, be sure to reach out and ask us. We also recommend reading up on how you can increase your push notification click-through rate, some overall web push best practices, or for a more general overview, you can always check out our Beginner’s Guide.