Most internet developments have improved our surfing experience and made using the web faster and easier. One that isn’t going down quite so well is the website notification. You know, those messages that websites like to show asking you to let them show you notifications. If you’re anything like me, you’re going to want to turn those off. Here’s how to stop those annoying website notification requests.
You may have seen the popups in webpages but do you know exactly what they are asking for? Notifications are the little popup messages in Windows 10 that show calendar entries, email arrival and other things you have configured it to show. They are often referred to as ‘push notifications’ because they are pushed to your device from somewhere else.
The idea of adding a notification is so the website can alert you via the operating system when they add new content, someone responds to your comment or other interaction, depending on the website in question.
Some of you might appreciate these kinds of notifications. They certainly do have value if you participate in debates, follow news stories or just like to interact. However, if you use your device for productivity, seeing notifications every few minutes for something can be a real distraction. Plus, being asked every time you land on a website is a pain in itself. Here’s how to stop them.
To stop website notification requests in Chrome, just follow these simple steps.
Selecting ‘Allow sites to show all…’ will do exactly that. Selecting ‘Ask when a site wants to show a notification’ will tell Chrome to send a prompt every time a website wants to push a notification. Selecting ‘Do not allow…’ turns all notification requests off.
If you want to strike a happy medium, you can allow some sites to send notifications while blocking all others. Select Manage exceptions and add the URL of the site(s) you don’t mind receiving notifications from while blocking all others.
If you want fast access to the preference settings in Chrome, you can just type ‘chrome://settings’ into the URL bar and it will take you to a slightly different screen that allows you to control many aspects of the browser.
Blocking website notification requests in Firefox is similar to Chrome.
Setting Firefox to block all, allow all or allow some is down to personal preference.
Like Chrome, you can access part of the Firefox Preferences section by typing ‘about:preferences.’ into the URL bar. This will allow you to toggle a bunch of settings on or off.
Like the other browsers here, you can block notifications in Safari too. The same as in Windows, making changes here stops websites pushing to Mac's Notification Center.
As far as I know, Safari doesn’t allow quick access to Preferences with a URL shortcut. Instead, there is a keyboard shortcut of Command +, (comma) that sends you directly to the menu.
Opera works very similarly to both Chrome and Firefox so blocking notifications is almost the same process.
Opera also allows quick access to Preferences if you type ‘opera://settings.’ Into the URL bar. Like Chrome and Firefox, here you can change all sorts of things.
Finally, Microsoft Edge. The bad news is that while Edge supports push notifications, it doesn’t yet allow you to block them. It is a feature apparently coming later this year. Internet Explorer doesn’t work with notifications so you shouldn’t get them in the browser anyway.
All websites will usually default to allowing all websites to display notifications on the desktop. While this is fine for many users, it isn’t so great for those who want to get on with their work or who don’t want to see a notification every time someone adds something to Facebook.
At least now you know how to stop this happening in your browser, unless you use Microsoft Edge of course. They will get around to adding the feature eventually. It’s a shame they are so behind the curve here as it’s just another reason to not use the browser.
Push notifications might work for you and can certainly offer certain benefits depending on how you use your device. I find notifications on my smartphone incredibly annoying while on my work machine, mostly annoying, especially when I’m troubleshooting a client app or working on a complex problem. Your mileage may vary of course, but it is a setting well worth trying!