Google Axing Spammy Android Nearby Notifications

Less than 3 years after launching Android Nearby Notifications, Google is killing off the feature.

In a weblog mail, Google Product Manager Ritesh Nayak admitted that Nearby Notifications—intended to surface apps, websites, and services that tin be helpful well-nigh you lot—had become too spammy.

"Our goal was to bring relevant and engaging content to users—to provide useful information proactively," Nayak wrote. Some developers leveraged the technology in helpful means—providing notifications near free local Wi-Fi, for instance. Others took reward of it to spam people.

"Earlier this year, nosotros noticed a significant increase in locally irrelevant and spammy notifications that were leading to a poor user experience," Nayak wrote.

Instead of trying to fix the feature, Google has opted to discontinue information technology altogether. The company plans to end support for Android Nearby Notifications on Dec. 6. Later on that date, users will finish receiving them. Developers, meanwhile, tin still deliver location-based alerts that are similar to Nearby Notifications via their own apps with the help of Google's Proximity Beacon API.

"We have a very high bar for the quality of content that we deliver to users, specially content that is delivered through notifications," Nayak wrote. "Ultimately, we have adamant these notifications did non meet that bar."

Meanwhile, Nearby Notifications isn't the but dead weight Google has decided to shed as of late. The web giant also announced plans to shut downward the consumer version of Google+ following the discovery of a issues information technology reportedly opted to keep secret to avoid regulatory scrutiny. The bug, which Google quietly patched in March, left the individual information of most 500,000 users open to third-party developers.

About Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo is PCMag's expert on fitness and smart domicile products. Teaching yoga for nearly 10 years has helped her in evaluating a range of continued health products including fitness trackers, heart charge per unit monitors, rowers, smart scales, stationary bikes, strength training machines, treadmills, and more than. Angela also tests smart home devices from her ranch in Florida, including air purifiers, kitchen appliances, and robot vacuums, but to proper name a few.