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Chrome blocks the notifications on abusive websites

  • # permission
  • # web-notifications

Chrome 84 will fight abusive notifications. Let's see what you should do to stay complaint and avoid the penalization.

First of all, don't worry... most websites will not be affected by this change.

This new feature aims to stop abusive behaviors, not the notifications in general.

The abusive behaviors to avoid

In particular Chrome wants to stop the following abuses:

  • abusive ways to get permission for notifications
  • abusive notifications

To be more specific, the permission request issues include:

  • users forced to subscribe to notifications in order to see the contents of the website
  • tricky ways to subscribe the users to notifications (e.g. misleading pre-prompts)

The notification issues include:

  • fake messages that resemble chats or system dialogs
  • notifications used for phishing attacks or promote malware

The penalty

If Google detects an abuse on your website, Chrome will start blocking the notification prompt on your website.

This doesn't mean that the users cannot subscribe to your notifications... They can still subscribe, but the process is more tedious.

Basically they will see a symbol in the address bar (🔕) or small notice at the bottom of the screen (on mobile) that says that notifications were blocked. This is very similar to the popup block. If you want to subscribe, you can click on the message and explicitly allow the notifications despite the warning.

The remedy

In case the notification prompt gets blocked on your website you can open the Google Search Console and go to the Abusive Notification Report.

There you will find a way to appeal the decision.

If you want more information you can read the official blog post from Google.