Google stops Nearby Notifications

Google will stop Nearby Notifications for Android smartphones. The feature provides users with information about their location and apps related to the location, among other things. The position will end on December 6, 2018.

The Android Developers Blog states that the “increase of irrelevant information” is the main reason for Google to stop Nearby Notifications. “While filtering and tuning can help, we ultimately set the bar high for the quality of content we deliver to users, especially the content delivered through the notifications. We found that these notifications do not meet our requirements.”, reports the message.

Via bluetooth and GPS, users can receive messages via beacons, in this case Eddystone and Physical Web Beacon. Google had developed two APIs for Nearby Notifications: Proximity Beacons and Nearby Messages.

Disabling Nearby Notifications means that Android users will no longer receive notifications from the feature when they are near a beacon. Developers will no longer receive notifications via Eddystone and Physical Web Beacon. Developers can still use Nearby Messages, Connections, Fast Pair and Proximity Beacons. Google reports that it will continue to support these features and APIs.

Google announced the service in 2016.