HTML5 Notification not working in Mobile Chrome

Question

I'm using the HTML5 notification API to notify the user in Chrome or Firefox. On desktop browsers, it works. However in Chrome 42 for Android, the permission is requested but the notification itself is not displayed.

The request code, works on all devices:

if ('Notification' in window) {
  Notification.requestPermission();
}

The sending code, works on desktop browser but not on mobile:

if ('Notification' in window) {
  new Notification('Notify you');
}

Answer 1

Try the following:

navigator.serviceWorker.register('sw.js');
Notification.requestPermission(function(result) {
  if (result === 'granted') {
    navigator.serviceWorker.ready.then(function(registration) {
      registration.showNotification('Notification with ServiceWorker');
    });
  }
});

That should work on Android both in Chrome and in Firefox Nightly (but not Firefox beta yet).

(The sw.js file can just be a zero-byte file.)

One caveat is that you must run it from a secure origin (an https URL, not an http URL).

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/ServiceWorkerRegistration/showNotification has more info.

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/blink-dev/BygptYClroM has info about why the Notification constructor is not supported in Chrome on Android though it still is in desktop Chrome.

Answer 2

Running this code:

 if ('Notification' in window) {
  Notification.requestPermission();
}

Console in Chrome DevTools shows this error:

Uncaught TypeError: Failed to construct ‘Notification’: Illegal constructor. Use ServiceWorkerRegistration.showNotification() instead

A better approach might be:

function isNewNotificationSupported() {  
    if (!window.Notification || !Notification.requestPermission)  
        return false;  
    if (Notification.permission == 'granted')  
        throw new Error('You must only call this \*before\* calling 
Notification.requestPermission(), otherwise this feature detect would bug the 
user with an actual notification!');  
    try {  
        new Notification('');  
    } catch (e) {  
        if (e.name == 'TypeError')  
            return false;  
    }  
    return true;  
}

Function Source: HTML5Rocks