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Google removes Chrome's notification center because nobody used it

Google removes Chrome's notification center because nobody used it

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As promised in October, Google has ditched Chrome's desktop notification center in its latest update, released today. The company first introduced the center back in 2013 and updated it with support for support for web push notification standard this April, but eventually decided it was unnecessary, noting that "in practice, few users" visited it. Chrome users who upgrade to version 47 of the browser on Windows, Mac, or Linux will no longer see the center in their taskbars, although it remains in Chrome OS for the moment.

Google isn't done with push notifications

Google says the removal of the center will streamline Chrome, but it doesn't mean the company is done with push notifications — instead, it's adopted web push notifications, allowing users to tailor Chrome to their interests. Users of the browser can set up push notifications for individual web pages, making it so they appear alongside regular app alerts on Android devices, and can still access their notifications from Google's homepage.

With the new update, developers can set those notifications so they're automatically dismissed after a certain time, to avoid cluttering screen space. Chrome 47 also fixes a series of bugs and adds splash screens to web apps launched on Android, making the loading process look slightly smoother than before. The update's already out for the desktop version of the browser, and should be coming to Android soon.