Web push notifications on Android

Browser support on Android

Browser	Web push	Images / buttons
Chrome	Yes	Yes / up to 2
Samsung Internet	Yes	Yes / yes
Edge	Yes	Yes / yes
Opera	Yes	Yes / yes
Firefox	Yes	No / no

Details vary by version; test on the browsers your analytics show. Full desktop + mobile table in browser support.

Two layers of permission

On Android 13 and later, apps — including browsers — need the system notification permission. The first time any site asks, Android may prompt “Allow Chrome to send you notifications?” before the site’s own permission matters. If someone declined that system prompt, no site in that browser can notify them until they enable it in Settings → Apps → Chrome → Notifications.

Per-site control in the notification shade

Android groups notifications into categories. Chromium browsers list sites individually, so long-pressing a notification lets a person silence just that site without leaving the shade. Make your notifications worth keeping and they won’t be one long-press away from silence (frequency).

Battery savers and delays

• Android’s Doze mode batches low-priority messages when a phone is idle.
• Some manufacturers add aggressive background limits for apps, including browsers.
• The Web Push Urgency header lets you mark genuinely urgent messages as high priority — use it sparingly (deliverability).

Writing for the Android shade

Collapsed Android notifications show one line of title and roughly one line of body — less when there’s an image. Expanded, they show the image and more text. Put the point in the title, keep the body to one supporting detail, and treat the image as a bonus (length guide). Android also shows the site’s domain and the browser name, so you don’t need your brand in the title.

Testing on a real Android phone

1. Open your site in Chrome on Android, accept your prompt and the browser dialog.
2. Lock the phone and send a test — check the lock-screen preview.
3. Pull down the shade and expand the notification to see the image and buttons.
4. Repeat in Samsung Internet if your analytics show many Samsung users.
5. Use Chrome’s remote debugging (chrome://inspect on desktop) to see service worker logs from the phone.

Installed web apps

When a visitor installs your site from Chrome (“Install app” or “Add to Home screen”), Android creates an app-like entry with its own icon and, in many cases, its own notification settings. Push works with or without installing on Android — unlike iPhone — but installation makes your notifications look even more native (PWA push).

Questions

Keep reading

More in Browsers & devices: Firefox push notifications: how they work · Safari push notifications on the Mac · Microsoft Edge push notifications · How to test web push notifications · How to turn off website notifications · All guides