[Gmail Update] Desktop Notifications for new Emails & Chat

Google in its yet another approach to make Gmail more friendly has introduced Desktop Notifications for Chats and any new Email messages. Desktop Notifications are possible under the pretext of HTML5 and available only for Chrome users as of now. This is clearly another attempt to attract users to Google Chrome browser which already has a market segment of more than 10% worldwide.

Google in its yet another approach to make Gmail more friendly has introduced Desktop Notifications for Chats and any new Email messages. Desktop Notifications are possible under the pretext of HTML5 and available only for Chrome users as of now. This is clearly another attempt to attract users to Google Chrome browser which already has a market segment of more than 10% worldwide. Even I activated the feature to see how this works and found out the following:

  • It did not send me any notification about a new ‘Important’ email even after 10 minutes of its arrival. Probably I need to check how it works exactly.
  • Chat notifications were immediately displayed.

DW desktopnotification1

Activation is easy and you will find the relevant settings under the Gmail Settings page in the General section with the title ‘Desktop Notifications’. You can select what all Desktop notifications you want to receive like Chats, All new emails or only for Important emails. No doubt, you can always Turn off the notifications anytime in case you wish to do so.

DW desktopnotification2

I guess this is a great move and will make Gmail much more favourite among the users. Let me know what you feel about this update and how do you plan to use Desktop notifications further. Don’t hesitate even if you have some queries about this.

LINK: Official Gmail Update

15 Comments

Asif Ahmed January 27, 2011

Thanks for sharing it with us..

Ankit Das January 27, 2011

Your welcome Asif 🙂

sumanth January 27, 2011

thanks for the update ankit…do keep us informing all tech updates..

Ankit Das January 27, 2011

Thanks for your comments!! I will do update you all my level best!

Raj January 27, 2011

Hey i found it today when i logged into gmail a notification asking to set notification for email and chat

Ankit Das January 27, 2011

Yeah the same way it happened for me!! 🙂

Syed Rakib Al Hasan January 27, 2011

really impressive stuff from Gmail. But, i am seeing only 2 options for the incoming Mail option:
~ Mail Notification On
~ Mail Notification Off

how do you bring in the IMPORTANT MAIL NOTIFICATION???

And what is the IMPORTANT MAIL NOTIFICATION about?
how does gMail undertand which mails are important and which ones are not?

Ankit Das January 27, 2011

Syeb, did you get a auto notification on the top of your Gmail tab to activate this feature?

Rakib January 27, 2011

ya i did

Ankit Das January 28, 2011

I guess you should re-check your settings again after the following:

1) Log out completely from Google
2) Clear your browser’s cache

Rakib January 28, 2011

i did that…. but still now luck.
how do you set a mail as IMPORTANT when you are sending the mail to someone

Ankit Das January 28, 2011

You have Priority Inbox feature enabled in your gmail?

Rakib January 28, 2011

No… i did not really like the priority inbox feature.

Ankit Das January 28, 2011

@Syed: Well if you do not use the Priority Inbox feature, then you will not be able to distinguish your emails as important. And that is the reason, Desktop notifications is not showing you the relevant options for only Important emails.

Rakib January 28, 2011

Hmm, well i guess that explains the matter.
Thanks for your time to look this through.