Google Chrome experimenting w/ native Mac OS X push notifications, here’s how to enable it

Google is experimenting with bringing native Chrome notifications to Mac users via integration with Apple’s built-in Notification Center in OS X. For now the feature is hidden as Google continues development, but there’s a way you can already enable it…

A developer on the Chromium site (via TNW) notes that the Chrome teams “are actively working on integrating with the OSX native notification center,” and that the feature can already be turned on in the latest Chrome canary build. Here’s how to enable it:

Navigate to chrome://flags/#enable-native-notifications in Chrome, and click “enable” next to “Enable native notifications”. You’ll have to relaunch Chrome before the feature is turned on.

Users point out that there is a version of the feature in the stable release and other builds of Chrome, but it’s not as up to date (naturally) as the build in the current canary release.

Back in October, Google announced that it would be shutting down its own Chrome Notification Center feature for Macs, a little used feature that enabled access to Chrome notifications from apps and extensions via an icon the Mac menu bar. 

As to whether or not native Mac notification center support will become a full-fledged feature in Chrome, the team warns that “It is not 100% clear either way as we may run into certain roadblocks.”