Re: [chromium-discuss] WebUSB device notifications change request

[Alex Russell]

Hey Mitch,

Thanks for the helpful feedback. Adding some folks to the thread that might be able to discuss.

Best,

Alex

On Mon, Dec 23, 2024, 1:42 AM Mitch Cairns <mitchel...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi, I'm a USB device developer. My gamepad uses WebUSB and I've been very happy with the feature and how it works in Chromium.

My one nitpick is that there is no way to disable the device pop-up. Also, the toast that appears does not auto-dismiss. As an example, when you connect the controller, this toast pops up and shows over everything. If me or customers are running a game and they connect the gamepad, now this toast is drawn on the screen with no way to dismiss it unless they alt-tab. 

I dont know where to begin to request a change for this, but it would be ideal if we could disable this notification in Chrome without disabling WebUSB altogether.

I propose the following changes, any of which would be an acceptable solution, in order of least complex to implement up to most complex

1. Add a timeout for the toast. 5 seconds. The notification auto-dismisses.
2. Add an option to disable WebUSB device notifications 
3. Add a per-device notification disable. In the toast a button "Don't show again"
4. Change the notification to use the OS notification channels instead of its own toast. This way it respects the OS notification status (snooze notifications, ignore in game mode, ignore in do not disturb etc, or disable entirely. 

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[Vincent Scheib]

This is a device-dev@chromium topic.  Most are out for the holidays.  It's a good consideration- though people working in this area I know of are likely saturated with higher priority work, so I don't expect work done soon here.

[Vincent Scheib]

-chromium-discuss which doesn't exist

[Reilly Grant]

crbug.com/360163256 is the canonical issue for disabling these notifications. crbug.com/40267651 is the canonical issue for switching to the native notification platform so that these can be managed more easily. 

I haven't noticed this issue being triggered by Electron apps but if you are seeing it please report it to the application or the Electron project. They shouldn't be enabling the WebUSB device detection code.

Reilly Grant | Software Engineer | rei...@chromium.org | Google Chrome

On Fri, Jul 4, 2025 at 12:26 PM Mitch Cairns <mitchel...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all, kindly bumping this issue once more.

These notifications really ought to go through the typical notifications channel or auto-dismiss.

This issue extends to Electron apps, where they are causing this pop-up even when in all my browsers I have the "Detect USB devices" flag disabled.

Thank you

[Reilly Grant]

I've forwarded this to Microsoft folks who can look into the Windows issue.

Reilly Grant | Software Engineer | rei...@chromium.org | Google Chrome

On Tue, Nov 18, 2025 at 7:45 AM Mitch Cairns <mitchel...@gmail.com> wrote:

I haven't noticed this issue being triggered by Electron apps but if you are seeing it please report it to the application or the Electron project. They shouldn't be enabling the WebUSB device detection code.

I wanted to follow up on this, as now this is being integrated into system-level components such as the widgets in Windows 11 (which are enabled, with no way to disable)

When Chrome is open, two individual popups are created that are non-native, aren't accessible with most screen reader accessibility tools, and do not auto-dismiss. This, in my estimation, is a Chromium issue primarily, not a developer issue. Asking users to file bugs for something that is likely not on the radar or test plans of their dev teams is not a feasible solution. Having this fixed in Chromium would roll this change out to any tools using Chromium web view, including Windows 11 widgets. 

I've created a Windows feedback submission, but as you could imagine, this is like throwing a pebble into a lake and the chance a human sees it is small. https://aka.ms/AAyqi9z

I think that the WebUSB device detection could be a genuinely useful feature; in its current state, it's simply an annoyance at best, and a privacy issue/accessibility issue at worst (System components and other apps having this enabled by default seemingly, without implicit enabling on the developer's part)