We compiled a set of issues from the initial UX review and this was one of them. There were other related to buttons and perhaps it's worth discussing those as well.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QLqRPqnXeZ4EHyzrsntk49K_bQQPAAozeVlJEoaY9WA/edit#heading=h.9urmj7ocycgs

The summary here is that the application icon needs to be shown, either as a full icon on the right or what we have, this was deemed the best option (even though it requires a private API). I have attached the alternative (not using a private API) to the bug.

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I read the doc previously and it's not clear what was deliberated.

By "application icon" in c#1 are you referring to the Chrome application icon or the web page's icon? You also say that it "needs to be shown" - are you talking as a UX decision or something the macOS notification system requires. What does the private API do, exactly?

There are a lot of pieces I'm missing as far as understanding the whys behind these decisions (and options for alternatives).

> By "application icon" in c#1 are you referring to the Chrome application icon
Chrome icon

>You also say that it "needs to be shown" - are you talking as a UX decision or >something the macOS notification system requires. What does the private API do, >exactly?

Sorry, I meant that I have not found a way to not show the chrome icon.

> What does the private API do, exactly?
The api is the _identityImage property in NSUSerNotification. It uses the image you pass as the large icon on the left and at the same time draws the application icon as part of the title. This is what iTunes does for example.
https://github.com/indragiek/NSUserNotificationPrivate has some more details.



> There are a lot of pieces I'm missing as far as understanding the whys behind these decisions (and options for alternatives)

Fair enough, and to be clear, it is totally possible that we are settling for a solution thinking that's the only possible way when in fact it's not. Would reviewing the decisions made in that doc in a meeting help?

The following revision refers to this bug:
  https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/a2f2fb7132fc8c110f22390b15e764f68dd6359a

commit a2f2fb7132fc8c110f22390b15e764f68dd6359a
Author: miguelg <miguelg@chromium.org>
Date: Thu Mar 23 12:19:04 2017

[Mac] Revert to using the public API to display notification icons

BUG= 701913 

Review-Url: https://codereview.chromium.org/2764113004
Cr-Commit-Position: refs/heads/master@{#459054}

[modify] https://crrev.com/a2f2fb7132fc8c110f22390b15e764f68dd6359a/chrome/browser/ui/cocoa/notifications/notification_builder_mac.mm

So in the end we decided to go with the https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=701913#c1 for the following reasons

1) In the original version the tiny icon version forces the notification text to be ragged left which does not look very good.
2) There are very few apps using the original version (iMessage that we know of), other like iTunes used to use it and have since moved away
3) The original version uses a private api that is unclear how long is going to be supported.