Google Chrome's notifications won't support Windows 10's Action Center
The Chrome team has no plans to support Windows 10’s Action Center functionality, as first reported by Neowin. A Chrome support moderator named “Ho” updated a feature request for Action Center support to “WontFix,” saying the following:
The story behind the story: While the explanation seems reasonable enough on the surface, Microsoft and Google have been locked in a war regarding feature support for their respective services—with users all-too-often caught in the crossfire.
Microsoft’s native Calendar app removed Google Calendar support in Windows 8.1—though it returned in Windows 10—and in 2013 Google removed support for Sync, which threatened service for Exchange ActiveSync users with Windows Phones. (Google and Microsoft eventually hammered out an agreement to delay the shutdown until Windows Phone 8.1 added CalDAV and CardDAV support.) Google has also refused to release apps for its services on Windows Phone or in the Windows Store. Things got so nasty that Microsoft released its own version of YouTube for Windows, which led to a brief, but bitter slapfight with Google.
The Chrome team’s refusal to embrace Action Center reeks of more of the same, especially since Google's been stealthily sneaking Chrome OS in through Windows' back door for a while now, but Ho provided some additional context in a follow-up comment after receiving some push-back:
Well, when you put it that way, delaying support for Action Center sort of makes sense—though it’ll no doubt sit poorly with users already grumpy about the Microsoft/Google pissing match. Refusing to support a central system notification system that every other app uses seems pretty anti-user as well, sure to sow some confusion.
Google does have a point, though: Chrome's notification system is more fully-featured than Windows 10's. It’d be nice if you could conduct actions straight from Windows 10’s pop-up notifications rather than being pulled into the app generating them. Here’s hoping Microsoft adds support for the functionality so Chrome ditches its reluctance to Action Center—or reveals its hesitance as truly being pettiness.