Everyone wants your attention these days; even your web browser. Just like websites can share articles on social media, they can also send their content directly to your browser through a push notification. It's easy to unintentionally sign up for these alerts, but there are ways to disable them or make them less invasive. Here's what you need to know to keep these pop-ups in check.
What Are Push Notifications?
Have you ever been minding your own business on the internet, only to be interrupted by a notification promising "the latest news and updates" from the site you're reading? Click Allow and when the site has a new story or offer it thinks you may find interesting, it'll slide in from the corner of your screen with a link. This is called a push notification.
There are also notifications for when a website tries to use your location or wants access to your camera or microphone. If you allow these types of notifications to get through, it means you will be pinged each time that website sends out an update. These notifications have their uses (in moderation), but if you aren't interested, it can quickly get annoying.
Disable Notifications in Chrome
Chrome enables notifications by default. This means websites will show you pop-up messages asking you to allow notifications. However, you can also turn them off completely or mute them for a less invasive experience. To control these messages, head to Settings > Privacy and security > Site Settings > Notifications
If you want to turn off these messages completely, select Don't allow sites to send notifications. This will stop all push notifications from your browser, but this will also include productivity-related notifications from apps like Gmail and Google Meet.
If receiving absolutely no notifications sounds like a problem, you can instead mute them by setting the option to Use quieter messaging. This will keep notifications but make them less invasive. A bell icon will appear in the URL bar when a message has been blocked. Click the icon to allow notifications for the current website.
You can also turn off notifications for specific sites or block all sites and only whitelist a few. If there are specific sites with annoying notifications you want to stop, click the Add button for the blocked section and enter the URL for the site. For any websites you may have already allowed, you can click the three-dot icon and choose Block.
On Android, head to Settings > Site Settings > Notifications to control your device's notifications. iPhone users can merely turn off pop-ups under Content Settings. Does this all feel too complicated? Skip it and browse in Incognito Mode, which blocks notifications by default.
Disable Notifications in Edge
Microsoft's Edge browser is a lot like Chrome, since it's based on the same Chromium code that powers Google's browser. To manage web notifications, click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and select Settings > Cookies and site permissions. Here is where you can control permissions for camera and microphone access, location information, notifications, and more.
Click Notifications. By default, notifications are set to Ask before sending, which is what got you here in the first place. You can turn this option off to eliminate notifications completely, or enable Quiet notification requests to ensure pop-ups won't interrupt your browsing.
If you choose quiet notifications, websites that try to send out requests will show a bell icon in the address bar. You can click this icon, then either click Allow for this site to get notified or Manage to open the Notifications page in Settings.
Individual websites can also be added to the Block or Allow lists by clicking the Add button and entering a URL. You can also set permissions for a specific website, including notifications, by clicking the lock icon in the address bar and choosing Permissions for this site. Permissions can then be set to Ask, Allow, or Block.
Disable Notifications in Safari
Safari allows you to manage notifications from the browser and System Preferences. With Safari open, navigate from the macOS top menu and select Safari > Preferences > Websites > Notifications to view all the websites you have either allowed or denied notification permissions.
Use the drop-down menu for each entry to change permissions, or highlight a website and click Remove to delete it altogether. You can also uncheck the box next to Allow websites to ask for permission if you want to stop pop-up notifications completely.
Notifications can also be managed at the operating system level. Go to System Preferences > Notifications & Focus > Safari and turn off Allow Notifications to disable them completely. If you simply want notifications to be less annoying, customize how you wish them to appear.
Another option available to Mac users is Do Not Disturb, which will turn off all notifications for a certain amount of time. Head to System Preferences > Notifications > Do Not Disturb to customize how this will work. Click the Control Center icon in the top menu and select Do Not Disturb to turn it on quickly at any time.
Notifications on iPhone are a completely different animal. You can handle them through the Settings screen or Do Not Disturb.
Disable Notifications in Firefox
Mozilla knows that users hate pop-up notifications, so it's done something about it in Firefox by only allowing websites to ask for your permission if you have interacted with the page in some way. Otherwise, a small speech bubble notification in the address bar will allow you to permit or block notifications. There is also more than one way to manage notifications.
To control notifications for a single website, click the lock icon in the address bar, then select Connection secure > More Information to open the Page Info window. Click the Permissions tab and scroll down to Send notifications. If you wish to change the notifications settings, uncheck Use Default, then choose between Always Ask, Allow, and Block.
A far easier way is to open the browser's hamburger menu and go to Settings > Privacy & Security, then scroll down to the Permissions section. Here, you can grant websites permission to access location data and the computer's peripherals, as well as receive notifications. Enable Pause notifications until Firefox restarts to turn off notifications until your next browsing session.
For something more permanent, click Settings next to Notifications. A menu will display a list of websites you have previously blocked or allowed directly from notification prompts. If there are items on the list that you wish to change, use the drop-down menu to switch between Blocked and Allowed, or you can remove them from the list entirely.
Check Block new requests asking to allow notifications at the bottom of the menu to block all new notification requests going forward.