In the company's bid to win its users back, Facebook has integrated Google's Chrome Push API to activate push notifications into its mobile website. This means people who opt to use Facebook's mobile site will soon receive notifications like native app users.
Facebook claims this latest move to partner with Google will significantly increase visits into its mobile site.
In fact, Jonathan MacKay, product manager at Facebook, says the social network has already noticed an increase in visits since it started to launch Chrome's push notifications.
"We've seen an increase in visitation from launching push notifications," MacKay confirms.
Facebook says 655 million users access the social networking site through a mobile device, which translates to almost half of the overall number of Facebook users.
Many of these users are said to use the mobile site since their phone also houses limited storage capacities. The web version does not require a lot of storage on the user's mobile device and it is also said to run fast. Additionally, the mobile site does not require any updates.
Google introduced Chrome Push API earlier this year. This allows websites to send push notifications to users who choose to access their mobile websites instead of their apps.
Owen Campbell-Moore, associate product manager at Google, says the company is expecting other browser makers to incorporate its web push notifications standard. Presently, Chrome Push API is already stable with Chrome and Opera. In November, it will reportedly land on Firefox 42. China's UC Browser also plans to integrate this feature into the browser.
Steps in Activating the Feature
Following are the steps to get Facebook push notifications via Chrome:
- Ensure that Chrome is updated to the latest version. The latest version can be verified by visiting Google Play.
- Open Chrome.
- Go to m.facebook.com and sign into your account.
- Tap the "Allow" button when the request to allow push notification shows up.
To verify, tap the three-dot menu button. This will lead to the Settings. From there, select the Site Settings option. Under the Notification option, check if Facebook is in the Allowed section.
