Why browsers automatically block push notifications after some time

• Created : Aug, 10, 2020
• Last Updated : Apr, 19, 2024

The advent of Push Notifications

The web push notifications came into existence not so long back in 2013, when google introduced them for the very first time. The push notifications became so popular that other browsers followed the same trend as the potential of these notifications seems to be quite expansive. They became a trending medium to engage users in marketing scenarios.

Many of the e-commerce companies and websites are incorporating push notifications in their marketing scenarios. As per an intended survey, around 4 percent of the 1,00,000 websites and 8 percent of the 10,000 websites are now using web push notifications. As the results are marvelous, the statistics have doubled up in the last 2 years. But one must also look into the fact that these notifications must not invade the privacy of the users. The privacy factor has changed drastically from 2013 to 2020. Therefore, Google Chrome version 80 has come up with a new feature of blocking push notifications automatically. Read this article to know why browsers such as Google Chrome block push notifications after some time.

What changes did google implement in context to push notifications:

The web push notifications on one hand provides users’ important updates regarding the latest offers the brands are coming up with. But on the other hand, somehow certain websites ask for the users’ permission at the first stage of their journey instead of sending notifications at the relevant moments. This restricts the user flow somehow. Therefore, Google Chrome has come up with the quieter UI to provide a better experience to the users and not to interrupt the flow of the user journey.

What are the features of Google chrome’s quieter UI:

Google Chrome’s “quieter notification permission UI” reduces the interruption of the notification permission request for the users. As per the feature, the user will not be shown the “allow or block” permission box but instead, a user will see the “notification blocked” text on the site. The next question one can come up with is do all the users see the QUIETER UI in chrome.

There are two sets of situations in such a case :

1. Users can opt-in or opt-out from the notifications which can be done manually by navigating through the settings.
2. Automatic enrolment is another option through which chrome automatically enrolls users in the quieter UI. Let’s see how :

• • Suppose a user repeatedly and frequently denying or blocking the notifications on different sites. They will be automatically enrolled in the “QUIETER NOTIFICATIONS UI”.
  • Also, the sites which face the issues of low acceptance rates that mean users are not allowing notifications from this site, therefore they will be automatically enrolled in Quieter notifications UI. That means the visitors who are landing on these sites will automatically view the quieter notifications UI. But there is an interesting fact related to the second point, i.e. in case the developers of these blacklisted sites improve the UI changes, then these sites would get unenrolled in the quieter notification prompts because they have certainly tried to improve the users’ experience through making changes in the UX.

What about the other Browsers who block Push Notifications?

Google Chrome is not the only browser that has come up with the quieter notifications prompt UI. There are other browsers which allows the users to block the not so relevant notification prompts automatically. Such as:

Mozilla Firefox:

• As per the statistical survey, many of the users were not accepting the prompts on Firefox and many were there who intuitively rejected the prompts. In such a case, the firefox has replaced the pop-up window with a bubble that shows a notification is blocked by the browser. Therefore, the browser will automatically show the quiet permission prompt if the users have not taken any action on the websites that send push notifications to the users.

Safari:

• When it comes to the SAFARI browser, initial user interaction is required before the permission prompt is shown to the users. 

Also, many browsers are built on the foundation of chromium, therefore whatever features the chrome is incorporating, they will affect the other browsers as well such as brave, opera, edge, etc.

Browsers are coming up with the features to automatically block or unsubscribe the push notifications because at some point they have realized that the push notifications sometimes act as a great hindrance rather than pulling off your marketing strategy in the right direction.

HOW CAN PUBLISHERS PREVENT NOTIFICATIONS FROM GETTING BLOCKED :

Although push notifications are a great marketing medium to pull in conversions and revenues, what can a publisher do when users do not accept the opt-in or reject it.  You can adapt the practices to control or avoid the users from blocking the notifications. 

What practices you can adopt to stop your notifications from blocking or unsubscribing:

1. Publishers must see how chrome 80 interacts with their site. That means, they shall test whether the site’s permission request flow is running smoother or not with the quieter notification UI.
2. Websites must enable the users to understand the context of the notifications instead of slapping a prompt on the users to click on the “ALLOW” or “BLOCK” button. Therefore, websites can ask for the users' permission through a double opt-in procedure. First show them a notification regarding the context of the push notifications you will be going to send them and then ask them the native permission prompt to avoid users from clicking on the REJECT button.

Note: Many times publishers block your content if users don’t find it useful specifically if you are prompting them to click on the notifications. 

A similar thing happens with the ad-blockers, sometimes users get distracted with the ads on the browsers, the publishers cut off the content which is distracting the users. But this somehow negatively affects the users and lower the engagement rates. The content blocking could be forcefully persuading them to accept the notifications.

The success of the campaigns usually depends upon how well publishers engage the audience and how well they retain them through their work but browsers again play an important role in the sense that they can curtail them automatically as we have stated above. Therefore you can find a medium through which you can reach your audience well without any hindrance and that is native apps. You can send rich push notifications to the audience without any hindrance. Therefore you can earn more revenues and engage the audience better with the native apps. If you do not owe them yet, you can expand your brand value and look more professional and up-to-date with the help of native apps. That is how you can disallow the browsers from automatically unsubscribing the push notifications.