If we were to ask any smartphone user what is that one thing that keeps popping up every now and then on their smartphone, the definite answer would be the "ever-so-unimportant" notifications. We're sure most of our readers would agree with this. And although there is a toggle inside the phones' settings that let you choose which app's notifications you'd want to see and which ones you don't, most of us simply do not like having to do the workaround and turning the toggle off.
Now, if you're noticing that you aren't getting as many notifications on your phone as you used to before, that could be partly due to the absence of some of Google's notifications.
Google kills Play Store notifications for good
Of late, many Android users are complaining that they are unable to see Google Play Store notifications that notified whenever an app update was available or if an app had auto-updated - this despite the users making any changes to the app notifications toggle or changing any settings within the Play Store.
Many of the users have been talking about this on Reddit and Google Support forums thinking that this could be due to a bug, but it isn't actually a bug. In fact Google has done this on purpose, to help Android users to better deal with the scores of notifications that keep flooding their phones everyday.
Helps cut down notification overload
A Google spokesman has confirmed to Android Police that the absence of Google Play Store notifications is officially on purpose. Google hasn't actually provided any explanation for its decision to do away with the Play Store notifications, so it's safe to assume that it did so to help users cut down on notification junk that keeps piling up throughout the day.
This is one move by Google that we have no complaints about, since not many actually cared about the Play Store app update notifications, anyway. Having to deal with fewer app notifications is always a good thing and less annoying. But now in case you want to make sure all the apps on your phone are updated, you will have to open the Google Play Store and check for the updates manually, which is something we can still live with.
Chrome for Android gets quieter too
Meanwhile, Google is also making some changes to its Chrome browser for Android by adding a quieter notification permission UI by auto-enabling the feature to keep you from getting bombarded with notification requests.
