The notification cards that Google Now uses to keep you updated on your Android and iOS phones and tablets are a big step closer to your desktop, as Google makes them available to Chrome Beta users on Monday.
The notifications appear when you click on the bell icon in the Windows system tray or the Mac menu bar, or the numbered icon in Chrome OS. Currently limited to English, Google said that it plans to expand to multilingual support in the future. Google has spent more than a year porting Now notifications to Chrome.
The feature brings a level of immediacy to your desktop without having to configure a separate notifications system, something that Google is clearly hoping will keep you in its ecosystem. However, Google has yet to allow notification removal to sync across platforms, so that when you swipe away a notification on your phone, it doesn't still show up on your desktop.
