With this change, notifications on ChromeOS are finally usable again

We’ve talked about this new change coming to the system tray of ChromeOS before, but it was something relegated to the Canary Channel at the time and I didn’t give it too much thought. As excited as I get for upcoming software changes to ChromeOS, if they require moving to the Developer or Canary Channels, I usually just take note of the feature and move on. When those features move down to the more-reliable Beta and/or Stable Channels, I’m way more apt to give them a true shot.

As I explained in an earlier post, the new Material You design for the Quick Settings area in ChromeOS is available (sort of) in the Stable Channel with the activation of a simple Feature Flag. Turn it on and you’ll get to begin experiencing the look and feel all of ChromeOS is methodically moving to. While there are a few things broken with it, I’ve been very happy with the new look of the Quick Settings area and I’m really looking forward to the fully-realized Quick Settings Material You overhaul in the near future.

Far and away, however, my favorite part of this updated area of ChromeOS is one that I didn’t initially realize was along for the ride. With the same Quick Settings flag mentioned in that previous article (chrome://flags/#qs-revamp), you also get the addition of the newly-separated notifications area, and this change is far more impactful than I initially thought it would be.

Instead of awkwardly stacking your notifications on top of the Quick Settings menu as ChromeOS currently does, this update introduces a separate place for them, and it makes so much more sense. Oddly enough, just like the left-justified app drawer we currently have on ChromeOS, this “change” is more of a return to what Chromebooks used to do. Before ChromeOS tablets, we had a smaller app tray and seperate notifications. Though these aren’t new ideas, they are both better implemented this time around and very welcome at this point.

For the first time in a long time, I’m actually triaging notifications on my Chromebook again. With the way they used to be, I just dismissed notifications in bulk because they were nearly impossible to deal with. Now that they have their own space, I can see how many notifications I have at a glance and there’s plenty of room to really deal with them when the area gets expanded. It’s funny how such a small change can have such a large impact, but it really does.

With this being part of the larger Quick Settings overhaul, I’m hoping the next version or two of ChromeOS sees this change rolled out to the masses. It all makes your Chromebook feel more cohesive and sensible, and I think there are quite a few users out there that will find great worth in this change. If you want to try it now and are OK with a few missing pieces in your Quick Settings for the time being, flip the flag up there and start enjoying a far-better notifications experience on your Chromebook right now. If you prefer to wait, it shouldn’t be long before this all arrives in a standard ChromeOS update.