Google Chrome has its own integrated download manager. This is the one that is in charge of copying the files that we are going to download from the web to the PC. However, it has always been sinful of being simple and basic, leaving out all kinds of functions and features that users miss. And one of them is let us know when a download is finished.
When we start a download in Google Chrome, it is added to the browser’s download list and begins to be copied to our computer. When finished, the antivirus checks it and, if everything is correct, it is saved on our PC. This process is fully automatic and happens in the background. The only thing we see is a progress bar, both in the browser and in the Windows system tray icon, and it disappears when the download is finished. Chrome does not display any notification, either audible or visual, when the file transfer is complete. This often makes some users forget that their downloads are complete and the files are already waiting on the computer.
Luckily, thanks to extensions it is possible to add functions and features of all kinds to the browser. And, thanks to the one that we are going to see below, we will never forget a download again.
Download Notifier, the must-have extension for Chrome
Download Notifier is a simple open source extension for Google Chrome that allows us to display a notice each time a download is completed from the browser. There is no mystery about how this extension works, and to use it we just have to download and install the extension from the Chrome Store:
The extension has a lot of permissions, mind you. But since it is open source, anyone is free to analyze it to verify that it is trustworthy. Once the extension is installed, its configuration window will open directly.
Here we will be able to choose if we want, in addition to showing the notice, a sound to be played at the end of each download or not. By default, this extension hide the download bar at the bottom and centralizes the downloads in an icon to the right of the address bar. If we want, we can activate the second option to show the download bar at the bottom.
Now we can launch any download in the browser. And this will appear in the icon that we mentioned just before.
The download will be carried out the same as always, with the difference that when it is finished a notice will appear, accompanied by a sound (if we have activated this option) that will notify us that the download has been completed. From this notice we will be able to open the file directly or go to the folder where it has been downloaded.
These notices are registered in the Google Chrome notification area, so we can also see them at any other time from there.
What else the download manager should have
In addition to these notifications at the end of downloads, Google’s browser should give users more control over the files they download. Among others, the functions that we miss the most in this tool to download files are:
- More control over where we want to download the files.
- Possibility of putting “tags” to the downloads.
- Split each download into multiple parts to increase your speed.
- Possibility to pause and resume downloads without problems. Also being able to recover failed downloads and continue them.
