Pop-ups, modals, overlays, interstitials: there are a lot of different ways to refer to the design elements that websites use to notify you of something (e.g., this site uses cookies) or encourage you to take an action (e.g., sign up for our newsletter). Regardless of what you call them, these notifications can be annoying, intrusive, and distracting.
But you don't have to deal with the process of closing multiple pop-up notifications to read content online. With the right extensions, you can block all website notifications on Chrome and get rid of other annoying website elements like paginated articles and auto-playing videos to start enjoying a less distracting online reading experience.
In this chapter, we can see about how to block
- Website notifications on Chrome,
- Cookie notifications on Chrome,
- Auto-playing videos on Chrome
1. How to block website notifications on Chrome
Real-time desktop or browser notifications for something like incoming emails or Slack messages make sense. New articles on a website you just heard of for the first time because it showed up in the search results? That makes less sense. That doesn't stop websites from asking you to let them send push notifications to your desktop or browser.
If you're tired of seeing these pop-ups and having to decline the requests, you can change your Chrome settings to either block all push notification requests or block them on specified sites.
- Open Chrome.
- Click the More icon (three vertical dots at the top-right corner of the browser).
- Select Settings.
- Scroll down to the Privacy and Security section, then click Site settings.
- Select Notifications.
- Toggle the Sites can ask to send notifications switch to the off position.
2. How to block cookie notifications on Chrome
- Since the European Union started enforcing GDPR in mid-2018, nearly every website you visit now covers a part of the content you're trying to read with a notification about the use of cookies on the site.
- If you're tired of clicking accept buttons and close icons to get cookie notifications out of the way of the content you're trying to consume, use the I don't care about cookies Chrome extension to banish them for good.
- I don't care about cookies is a free (with donations accepted) Chrome extension that claims to remove cookie notifications from almost all websites.
- And if you do find a cookie notification that slips past the blocker, you can report it by clicking Report a cookie warning in the extension's options menu.
- Last night, you blasted your favorite song through your laptop's speakers. Today, you're sipping coffee and getting prepared for the day with a little online research. You were having a nice morning until you landed on a site with an auto-playing video that started playing at the volume of your evening jam session and scared the soul out of you.
- Auto-playing videos especially those that play audio and videos are the modern equivalent of websites with background music: unnecessary, unexpected, and generally unpleasant. And they slow down your page load speeds.
- To stop auto-playing videos altogether, you can use the free AutoplayStopper Chrome extension.
- And if for some reason you do want to allow videos to autoplay on a specific site, you can approve sites quickly by opening the extension's options menu from the omnibar and selecting Allow autoplay for [site].