How to Manage Push Notifications in Your Web Browser

Push notifications allow apps, websites, and some browser extensions to send you alerts, personal messages, and other advisories. These notices can be sent to your computer or portable device, even when the browser and related applications aren't active.

Most push notifications provide a way to control which sites and web apps are allowed to reach you in this fashion by using the Push API or a related standard. Here's how to modify these settings in the popular desktop and mobile browsers.

Google Chrome Push Notifications

The method to manage push notifications for Chrome on an Android device is different than other operating systems such as Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and Chrome OS.

For Android

To manage push notifications on an Android phone or tablet:

1. Select the Chrome menu, denoted by three vertically-placed dots and located in the upper-right corner of the browser window.

2. In the drop-down menu, select Settings.

3. In the Chrome Settings, select Site Settings.

4. In the Site Settings screen, scroll down and select Notifications.

5. The following two settings are offered by toggling the switch on and off:

   • Ask first: The default option. Requires your permission to allow a site to send a push notification.
   • Blocked: Restricts all sites from sending push notifications through Chrome.

6. To permit or deny notifications from individual sites, select the lock icon that appears on the left side of the Chrome address bar when you visit the site. Next, tap Notifications and select either Allow or Block.

For Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Chrome OS

To allow or block push notifications on Windows, Mac OS X, Chrome OS, and Linux:

1. Select the Chrome menu, located in the upper-right corner of the browser window and denoted by three stacked dots.

2. In the drop-down menu, select Settings. Or, go to the Chrome address bar and enter chrome://settings.

3. In the Chrome Settings screen, scroll down and select Advanced.

4. In the Privacy and security section, select Content settings.

5. In the Chrome Content settings ​screen, scroll down and select Notifications.

6. Under the Notifications settings, turn on the Ask before sending toggle switch to instruct Chrome to prompt you for a response each time a site attempts to push a notification to the browser. This is the default and recommended setting.

7. Below that are two sections: Block and Allow. Use these to affect push notifications from certain sites.

Mozilla Firefox

Here's how to manage push notifications in Mozilla Firefox for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux:

1. Go to the Firefox address bar, type about:preferences, and press Enter.

2. In the Firefox Preferences screen, select Privacy & Security, located in the left menu pane.

3. Scroll down to the Permissions section and, to the right of Notifications, select Settings.

4. When a website requests your permission to send notifications using the Firefox Web Push feature, the sites you allow are stored in this table. Use the drop-down menu in the Status column to either Allow or Block a site.

5. Firefox provides the ability to block notifications altogether, including related permission requests. To disable this function, select the Block new requests asking to allow notifications check box.

6. Select Save Changes to make your settings permanent.

7. You may need to restart Firefox for the new settings to take effect.

Microsoft Edge

To manage push notifications for Microsoft Edge on a Windows computer:

1. Select the Settings menu in the upper-right corner. The icon is three horizontal dots.

2. Choose Settings.

3. Scroll down to the Advanced settings section and select View advanced settings.

4. In the Website permissions section, and select Manage.

5. You'll see a list of websites that you granted special permissions to. Under each one, Edge lists the permissions that it was granted. Notifications is listed on sites you allowed to send you notifications. Select a site.

6. Under that site, turn the toggle switch On or Off. Select Clear permissions (below the switch) to remove all permissions granted to a site.

Opera

To manage push notifications in the Opera web browser on a Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux computer:

1. Go to the Opera address bar, type opera://settings, and press Enter.

2. In the Opera Settings screen, scroll down and select Advanced.

3. In the Privacy and security section, select Content settings.

4. Choose Notifications.

5. Move the toggle switch to flip between Ask before sending and Block. The one you choose is Opera's default behavior for a site that supports push notifications.

6. Use the Block and Allow lists to manually add sites to tell Opera to always either block or allow certain websites.

Safari

To manage push notification in Safari on Mac OS X:

1. From the Safari menu, select Preferences.

   The keyboard shortcut is Command+, (comma).

2. Select Websites, located along the top row.

3. In the left pane, select Notifications.

4. By default, Allow websites to ask for permission to send push notifications is enabled. These sites are stored and listed on this screen, along with the level of permission you granted. Accompanying each site are two choices, Allow or Deny. Select the desired option for each site, or leave it as is.

5. At the bottom of the Notifications, there's an additional option, Remove, which allows you to delete saved preferences for one or more sites. When an individual site's setting is deleted, that site prompts you for action the next time it attempts to send a notification.