In case you didn’t know, your Android device uses beacons to notify you of deals and alerts from nearby places. However, the tech giant recently announced that they plan to discontinue the service due to an increase in spam alerts.
About three years ago, Google had the idea that the location-based nearby notifications was one of the ways that users could gain access to information about the places around them right on their smartphones without having to do a search.
Our goal was to bring relevant and engaging content to users – to provide useful information proactively. Developers have leveraged this technology to let users know about free wifi nearby, provide guides while in a museum, and list transit schedules at bus stops.
Discontinuing support for Android Nearby Notifications
25 October 2018
Posted by Ritesh Nayak M, Product Manager
Google claims that the increase in spam alerts leads to “poor user experience.” And, while users can filter the content that appears,
Ultimately, we have determined these notifications did not meet that bar. As a result, we have decided to discontinue support for Nearby Notifications. We will stop serving Nearby Notifications on December 6th, 2018.
By early December, users should no longer receive Nearby Notifications. The Proximity Beacons API will still function so that app developers can send nearby alerts.
Nearby Messages and Connections are available for developers to build device-to-device connectivity experiences, and there is also Fast Pair, for device discovery and pairing.