Google kills its Notifier app for mail and calendar events

Google has quietly pulled the plug on its notifier service for Calendar and Gmail events for the desktop. This feature had been in service for about ten years before Google decided to pull the plug on it. In an age of smart phones, operating systems and web browsers that alert you to every new email, calendar appointment, and more, there has not been much need for Google's free Notifier app.

The notifier tool could check for new mails and calendar events every two odd minutes and would inform users of the messages. The free notifier tool also worked as an intermediary to users who back in the day would not use native calendar or mail clients, leaving the main work to be done on the browser itself. Users looking to install the app are now being told by Google to simply install Chrome, which has the desktop notifications built in and can hook up to the company's productivity apps. Before such inventions, the small software utility was able to check for messages every 2 minutes, and alert users to new mail and calendar events. It was an intermediary to Google's online services for people who did not use a native mail or calendar client and preferred doing all the work in the browser. Still, Google did not put much faith into the tool, replicating many of its core features inside other softwares, like Google Talk.

On its own support page, Google has informed users that the notifier is now no longer supported and has listed down steps for users to follow and uninstall the feature from both Windows as well as from Mac.

If you want to continue receive notifications, you can use any of the following options to Google Notifier Beta using the Chrome browser:

• To check the unread messages in your inbox at a glance, install the Gmail Checker Chrome app.
• If you want to preview new messages on your desktop, go to Gmail's settings and enable Desktop Notifications.
• To get Calendar notifications on the desktop, go to Calendar's settings> Labs > Enable Gentle reminders > Save. Then you can go back to the "General" settings page and make sure that "Show floating desktop notifications" is checked.

Uninstall the Google Notifier

Windows

1. Open the Control Panel.
2. Click Uninstall a program under "Programs."
3. Select Google Gmail Notifier in the list.
4. Click Uninstall.

Note: Procedure for uninstalling may be different for your version of Windows.

Mac

1. Open the Applications folder on your computer.
2. Find the Google Notifier icon.
3. Drag the icon to the Trash.

If you get the error "The item “Google Notifier” can’t be moved to the Trash because it’s open" you'll need to quit Google Notifier before uninstalling:

• If you see a Gmail icon at the top of the screen near the time, click the Gmail icon and select Quit All Google Notifiers.
• If you do not see a Gmail icon, then follow these steps:

1. Open the application Activity Monitor.
2. In the search bar at the top of the window, write Google notifier.
3. Double-click Google Notifier under "Process Name."
4. Click Quit and again choose Quit when asked to confirm.Speech 

Author : Iman Majeed

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