Chrome’s new feature is here to hush spammy website alerts

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If your browser has basically turned into a spam machine, you’re not alone, and Google is finally doing something about it.

Chrome’s about to get a whole lot quieter, thanks to a new feature that automatically muzzles websites you don’t actually care about, Google announced in a company blog post.

Starting now, Chrome (on both Android and desktop) will keep track of which sites you’ve actually bothered to interact with.

If you’ve been ghosting a particular site—no clicks, no activity, just endless pop-up notifications—Chrome will start revoking its permission to bug you.

This isn’t about killing all notifications (some are actually useful, like news alerts or your calendar reminders), but it’s a big step toward cutting the noise from sites that treat your browser like a free-for-all megaphone.

As first reported by TechCrunch, Google’s own data is pretty damning:

Less than 1% of all browser notifications get any kind of response from users. That means the other 99%? Pure digital static.

According to The Verge, by tightening the faucet, Google hopes to push spammy sites to either chill out or risk losing notification privileges completely. Engadget speculates that this move could finally force the worst offenders to rethink their notification strategies.

This new “auto-revocation” feature isn’t a total black box, though. Chrome will actually let you know when it’s about to snip notification permissions, and you’ll be able to undo it if you really want that site to keep shouting at you.

If you’re the masochist type who loves being pinged by every site you’ve ever visited, there’s an option to turn off the auto-mute entirely.

The move builds on Chrome’s previous Safety Check tools, which already yanked camera and location access from websites you’d abandoned.

Now, it’s coming for your notification sanity, too. And if you’re worried about missing out on those rare, genuinely useful alerts—don’t be.

As TechCrunch points out, web apps you’ve installed won’t get silenced (unless you ignore them, too).

The real kicker? Google’s tests showed this fix won’t even put a dent in actual user engagement. During trials, clicks on notifications barely budged, because—surprise—people weren’t clicking those pop-ups anyway.

So, welcome to the new, quieter Chrome. Your browser’s about to become a little less like Times Square at rush hour and a little more like a library—unless, you know, you prefer the chaos.

Kevin Raposo

Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com.