Google Chrome has become a prime extension of our lives, be it personal or business. The Internet browser, available on both mobile and desktop, has become a mainstay in the connected world as it brought Google's handy services and apps straight from one window. It can even push notifications to add to its user's productivity, and it's all in a centralized location. However, Google has seen it fit to kill its full-fledged notification center on Windows, Mac and Linux when the next version arrives.
Google Chrome started pushing notifications for web pages via the web push standard this past spring. Notifications in Chrome, however, aren't something what any of its avid users would call 'new.' Simply, Chrome apps and extensions have been supporting push notifications on 2010, easily making them welcomed features when they came out. And since these notifications come while the users are away from their keyboards, Google developed a notification center to centralize all the app and extension notifications that they would have missed.
However, the search engine giant found that, in practice, only few users check updates on the notification center. So, to keep it much simpler, Google has removed it from Windows, Mac and Linux when the next version hits release date, with only Chome OS retaining it.
Google has outlined the changes that will affect Chrome app and extension developers in the new notifications documentation. According to Google, notifications that are sent solely to the notification centre will now result in an error, and API events tied to the centre will no longer trigger. All else will then continue to function without requiring any changes.
Push notifications for the web have definitely become an essential way for users to interact and engage with the web pages they frequently visit. By streamlining this experience on the desktop environent, Google Chrome will be able to ensure a simple notification experience no matter what platform its users are in.
