Besides the cookie-related warnings, a new trend among major websites is the offer to show notifications. While we understand the plan to provide a more "interactive" experience, so to speak, all these requests manage to do is irritate users. Fortunately, both Firefox and Chrome allow us to block them with a couple of minimal adjustments.

Facebook offers them. YouTube offers them. The most important online shopping sites offer them. Of course, I'm talking about notifications. These alerts not only come out of nowhere, but also take the liberty of covering the screen, blocking all access until we make a decision. They are unwelcome, nobody authorized them, and judging by the opinion of users on the web, they deserve a quick death as soon as possible. So, how do we do that? The first thing that comes to mind is using an extension, but it's not necessary. The main browsers have options that disable them. Let's start with Chrome.

How to Block Notification Requests from Websites in Chrome and Firefox
Notification prompt

How to block notification requests in Google Chrome

How to Block Notification Requests from Websites in Chrome and Firefox
Just switch the toggle so it's set to "Blocked"
  1. Go to Chrome's settings.
  2. Expand the Advanced options menu.
  3. Go to the Privacy and Security section.
  4. Enter Content Settings.
  5. Click on Notifications.
  6. Turn off the toggle for "ask before sending".
  7. You can delete individual entries if you want.

The "ask before sending" option should now appear with the label "Blocked". That's it! Notification requests won't bother you anymore in Google Chrome. Now, what can we do with Firefox?

How to block notification requests in Firefox

How to Block Notification Requests from Websites in Chrome and Firefox
In Firefox, we check the box
  1. Go to settings.
  2. Go to Privacy and Security.
  3. Look for "Notifications" in the Permissions section.
  4. Enter its properties.
  5. Check the option to block new requests.
  6. Save changes.

This configuration menu is only available from Firefox 59 onward. As an alternative, go to about:config, search for or create the dom.webnotifications.enabled preference as a boolean, and set it to "false". Finally, Microsoft Edge only allows blocking them one by one. The browser will remember the decision, but it would be better to have a general control function. Maybe in a future patch...?