Chrome Notifications for All Users!

Updates Announcements
#1

Hi everyone!

I’m so excited to give an update on the new push notifications system that we’ve been working on! We’ve been testing Chrome notifications with beta testers for the past couple weeks, and now we’re finally ready to unveil them to the general public!

Why notifications?
On ROBLOX, there are so many events that our users care about, and we want to let you guys know when these events happen as soon as possible! For example, we could send you a notification when a friend accepts your friend request, when you receive a new PM, or when an item goes on sale.

What type of notifications will be available?
We have desktop Chrome push notifications available right now, and we are also working on Android and iOS push notifications for mobile devices. Specifically, we have notifications for:

  • When someone sends you a friend request
  • When someone accepts your friend request
  • When someone invites you to a party
  • When someone joins your party
  • When someone sends you a chat message

We also have other notifications in the works, and feel free to make suggestions because we’re just getting started! Just to give you guys a small sneak peak, the next couple we have planned are: when you receive a PM, when you receive an invite to a VIP server, and when you have a new follower.

What are desktop Chrome push notifications?
Essentially, desktop push notifications are just like mobile push notifications, but on your computer. They will show up at the bottom right corner (if you’re using Windows) or the top right corner (if you’re using Mac OS) when an event that you want to be notified about happens.

When you enable Chrome push notifications for ROBLOX, you will be able to receive push notifications from ROBLOX even when your Chrome browser is closed. This also means that you will need to use Chrome to test out our new notification system. However, we are looking into expanding desktop push notifications to other browsers as well.


Here is an example of what they will look like.

Can we choose which notifications we want to see?
Yes! In the Privacy tab under My Settings, you’ll be able to individually select which events you want to be notified about. However, we are still making adjustments to the system, so feel free to give us feedback.

977×241 38.1 KB

How do I turn on desktop Chrome push notifications?
First, make sure you have Chrome 50 or higher installed on your computer. Then, open up the ROBLOX website on Chrome and follow the steps below.

Click on the gear icon in the top bar to go to the Settings page.

Click on the Privacy tab in the Settings page.

974×83 11.1 KB

Click on the switch next to Desktop Push.

994×92 9.59 KB

You should see a popup that will walk you through how to turn on notifications for Chrome.

Afterwards, you should see that the switch next to Desktop Push is turned on, and you will be able to receive desktop push notifications! You can then select which notifications you want to receive, and remember to save your selections.

977×241 38.1 KB

Please let me know if you have any feedback, suggestions, or questions about notifications!

14 Likes
Firefox Notifications for All Users!
#2
#3

It might not be as useful to top devs as it would be for pretty much everyone else XD (that’s what beta testers are mostly made of, right?)
Cause every 60 minutes I get more friend requests than I can accept.

But I can imagine how fun it would be to get a message of someone wanting to hang out with you.

1 Like
#4

Any ETA on notifications for Safari on OS X?

#5

Nooooooo group shout notifications didn’t make the cut. That’s one of the most downloaded ROBLOX extensions in the Chrome store right now. I was really hoping it’d make it onto the drawing board quickly since it seems to be the most desired (compared to not really even any demand for a follower/VIP-invite notifier extensions).

4 Likes
#6

PMs should have been in the initial release if you ask me (They are the only notification I can see myself turning on), but I’m glad to hear it is coming soon.

#7

So every notification that we’re making right now is like one-to-one. E.g. someone sent you a friend request, so only you will get a friend request notification. The group shouts notifications are more like broadcast notifications that are sent to a large group of people, e.g. a group makes a shout, and then everyone in the group needs to be notified (as opposed to just one person). We will work on supporting notifications that are more broadcast-y, but we are only releasing one-to-one notifications with the first wave.

2 Likes
#8

Yep, we’re working on PM notifications right now as I’m typing this!

2 Likes
#9

We will probably tackle Firefox first, if anything. We have the most users on Chrome and Firefox, and we’re trying to reach as many users as we can, so we’re starting with these two browsers.

5 Likes
#10

Yep, we did think that friend request notifications would not be very useful for popular users (who receive way too many friend requests), and were considering turning it off by default. However, for the regular user, this is probably not the case, so we have left it on by default. I hope it isn’t too inconvenient to turn off friend request notifications in the settings!

3 Likes
#11

It will take me ages to find the settings… :joy:

1 Like
#12

So Firefox support is coming? Cause I use Firefox on all my devices (including Android, cause Android Chrome doesn’t support extensions cri), and have no plans to switch browsers unless Google adds extensions to Android Chrome.

1 Like
#13

Yeah looks like Firefox is a priority after Chrome.

#14

I’m not a web developer expert, but the people I know who are always tell me the same thing.

Detect features, not browsers.

So if you guys are doing Chrome exclusive things, and then later add other browsers (probably with their own specific code and APIs), how will this not turn into a unmaintainable mess?

#15

Detecting features rather than browsers is generally good advice for web development. However, in the case of push notifications, that’s not possible.

Push notifications are a new feature and still being developed by the browser vendors, and they are each doing it in slightly different ways. In the case of Chrome, you need to register an application with Google to handle the notification relaying, so there are actually browser specific requirements. The supported feature set also varies from browser to browser. So we’re supporting this feature browser by browser, starting with Chrome as it has the largest usage amongst our users.

3 Likes
#16

I’m glad to see this finally becoming a reality!

I’d still really like to see these notifications expanded to support group shouts, is this or can this be made a planned push notification?

#17

Basically, this is on our radar, but our system isn’t built for more broadcast-y notifications yet. We hope to, though!

1 Like
#18

These notifications will be for desktop devices only. We have native mobile push notifications on the way. We’re planning for Firefox.

3 Likes
#19

Is it even possible for a mobile browser to send notifications? I see Discourse doesn’t let you enable notifications when you’re on Mobile Safari or Chrome.

#20

Idk what I am getting, but I use the android-version of chrome and I get notifications on my phone, if you are not testing it. And it redirects me to chrome when I click it.
Edit:

750×1333 192 KB