17 August 2026
Browsers now unsubscribe your readers for you
The list can shrink without anyone hitting Unsubscribe. That is not a bug in your composer. It is policy.
Nobody clicked Unsubscribe
I have sat with lists that leaked on weeks when the unsubscribe report looked calm. That used to make me check the export. Then I started reading what the browsers published, and some of the leak had a different name.
The person did not leave. The browser left for them.
What Chrome said, in their words
In October 2025 Chrome said it automatically removes notification permission for sites a person has not interacted with recently when engagement is very low and notification volume is high. Chrome tells the person. They can turn permission back on in Safety Check, or turn the feature off. Installed web apps are not included. Source: Google, 10 October 2025.
In January 2026 they began rolling out Push API rate limits for sites that send a lot with little time on site. A site they judge disruptive is limited to no less than 1,000 messages per minute. Excess requests get 429. They name three daily factors: pushes per time on site, permission prompts per time on site, and engagement. Limits step up and reset after 42 quiet days. This is the Push API, not the Notifications API. They say nearly all sites will be unaffected. Source: Chrome Developers, 6 January 2026.
I am not going to invent a threshold they did not publish. I do not know their internal score. Anyone who says they do is guessing.
The teaching line, and the limit of it
We say push has a spam folder now. That is a metaphor. It is not a Chrome button. Over-send and you get throttled or you lose permission. Teach the behavior. Do not use it as a smear.
What I changed in my own head
I used to treat a shrinking list as a content problem or a prompt problem. Sometimes it is. Sometimes you are just loud in a browser that has decided you are not worth the space.
I still do not have a perfect answer for every lost row. I know I will not sell immunity. I know I want the product to show what you are spending. If your current tool cannot even tell you the list moved without an unsubscribe, start asking that question before you schedule the next one.
