Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Linux How To: Make Chrome Use Native Notifications in Ubuntu/GNOME Shell

If you use any web-apps or websites in Chrome that provide notification pop-ups on your desktop then you’ll know how out of place they look in Ubuntu.


For although Chrome’s notification ‘toasts’ are consistent across all three major operating systems – that is they look and behave the same on Windows, Mac and Linux – they are, unlike, say, Windows, where there is no unified notification system, at odds with the way Ubuntu users are used to seeing their new e-mail, chat or tweet alerts.


For example, here is a Chrome notification on the Ubuntu desktop as it looks by default:


And here’s the same notification from Chrome but delivered using Ubuntu’s native notification system:
Looks better, right? Well you can get all this in just one extension.


Download

The extension, called ‘Linux Native Notifications’, supports GNOME-Shell desktop notifications as well as those used by Unity, and should work on ubuntu 11.10 onwards.


It’s a fork of the now-defunct Chromify-OSD extension by developer Tualatrix Chou.


UPDATE: I am getting some reports that this might not be working with some versions of Chrome/Chromium. If this is not working for you, please update your browser via your favorite package manager, or use the update manager. If you are still having the problem, then reinstall the extension. If you are still having problems, then report in the comments below. I can pass this along to a forum where it can be fixed.