Google is shutting down Android's Nearby Notifications due to excess spam
Say goodbye to opt-in spam
Why it matters: It's tough to admit a product was a failure or didn't go
over as planned. In the case of Nearby Notifications, that's exactly
what happened and you've got to praise Google for realizing this.
Marketers won't like it but eliminating an unnecessary source of spam is
the right move.
It’s been more than two years since Google created Nearby Notifications,
a way for Android users to discover relevant and engaging content while
out and about. Using Bluetooth and GPS, the idea was to proactively
provide useful information to nearby handsets, such as notices about
free Wi-Fi hotspots or bus schedules.
Predictably, what turned into a potentially useful service was more or
less ruined by marketers who created locally irrelevant and spammy
notifications.
As Google product manager Ritesh Nayak M explains, filtering and tuning
can help but in the end, it still led to a poor user experience that
didn’t meet Google’s standard for content delivered through
notifications.
As such, Google will discontinue support for Nearby Notifications on
December 6. At that time, Android developers will no longer be able to
send Eddystone and Physical Web beacon notifications and users will stop
receiving them. Devs will still have access to the beacon dashboard,
however, and still be able to send proximity-based content through their
own apps using the Proximity Beacons API.
This type of location-based marketing felt slimy from the beginning and I
applaud Google for stepping up, admitting it was a failure and shutting
it down. Even if it was opt-in, it was destined to be overridden by
spam. Hopefully, others will follow Google’s suit and help fight
unwanted spam.
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