How To Turn On Native Notifications For Google Chrome On Linux
In spite of the annoyance some users might feel towards notifications coming from the web browser, they’re here to stay. More and more websites are offering the ability to turn them on and shoe native notifications on the desktop. Browser notifications, especially notifications for Google Chrome aren’t known to look the greatest. The design itself isn’t terrible, as Chrome has high standards. However, on Linux, the notification system doesn’t match the whole of the operating system.
To fix this Google has slowly been working on releasing a system that allows users to receive native-style notifications for Google Chrome. Sadly, Linux is the last to get full support for everything. If you’re a Chrome user, you’ll need to go into the experimental feature section and turn on the native notifications.
Enabling experimental features in Chrome can be scary, especially if you’re a new user. That’s why in this tutorial, we’ll go over how to enable the new native notification system for Linux! To get started, you’ll need to launch Google Chrome. Don’t have Chrome already? Follow these instructions to install it.
Note: not all operating systems have support for the Google Chrome browser. If for some reason you can’t get it installed, install Chromium. It is mostly the same thing.
Install Google Chrome
Google Chrome is easy to install, as it has packages for Debian/Ubuntu and Fedora/OpenSUSE. First, go to the official download site and select either the Debian/Ubuntu version or the Fedora/OpenSUSE version. Then open up a terminal and run the following commands to get it working.
Ubuntu/Debian
First, use the CD tool to move to the ~/Downloads folder.
cd ~/Downloads
Next, run the dpkg package tool to install the Google Chrome Debian package to the system.
sudo dpkg -i google-chrome_stable_current.deb
Lastly, correct the dependency files and get Chrome ready to use.
sudo apt install -f
Fedora
Move the terminal to the ~/Download directory, where the Chrome package is using CD.
cd ~/Downloads
Install Google Chrome to Fedora by using the DNF package install tool.
sudo dnf install google-chrome_stable_current.rpm -y
OpenSUSE
Move into ~/Downloads with the CD command.
cd ~/Downloads
Install Chrome to OpenSUSE with Zypper.
sudo zypper install google-chrome_stable_current.rpm
Arch Linux
Some may not know this, but it’s possible to run the Google Chrome browser on Arch Linux despite the fact that it doesn’t have official support from Google.
Running Chrome is possible because of the Arch User Repository. To get the browser on your Arch PC, start off by installing the latest version of the Git package using Pacman.
sudo pacman -S git
Next, use the Git command to clone the most recent Google Chrome pkgbuild files.
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/google-chrome.git
Use the CD command to move the terminal to the new google-chrome directory that you cloned.
cd google-chrome
Lastly, use the makepkg tool to build the software. Keep in mind that if some dependencies fail to automatically install that you will need to get them installed on your own. Scroll down the page and look for “dependencies.”
makepkg -si
Native Notifications For Google Chrome
To enable the new native notification system on Linux, open up a new tab in Google Chrome. In this new tab, type in:
chrome://flags
Alternatively, it’s also possible to access flags by typing in about:flags.
The flags area of Chrome is where Google hides all of the good stuff. Mainly experimental features, beta features, legacy features, browser enhancements, tweaks, etc. To find what we need, go to the search box and type “notifications.” This search term will filter out all the other Chrome flags, in favor of the options we want.
Note: it’s also possible to press Ctrl + F and search for “notifications Linux.”
Four notification related search results should appear. The one we need is “Enable Native Notifications”. The default option for Chrome is “default,” which usually means that the browser only uses this feature sometimes.
To enable native notifications for Google Chrome, look for the drop-down menu. Click on it to reveal the options. Inside the options menu, there is “Default, Enabled and Disabled”. Click “Enabled”.
After clicking the “Enabled” option in the flags menu, Chrome will let the user know that “it needs to be re-launched” to apply the settings fully. Click the “re-launch” button to restart Chrome.
When Google Chrome opens up again, it should be using the native Linux notification system.
Turn Native Notifications Off
Having native notifications for Google Chrome is excellent, as it matches the rest of the notifications on the desktop. However, not everyone likes this feature. If it turns out you hate it, turn it back off. To do that, open up a browser tab and go back to chrome://flags.
Like before, use the search box to search for “notifications”. Click the options menu and select “Disabled”. After selecting the “Disabled” option, restart Chrome, and the system should be disabled.
