# 🔗 Update announcements are most likely to appear at the least convenient time.

- Author: @gurupanguji
- Date: 2026-06-24
- URL: https://gurupanguji.com/blog/2026/06/24/update-announcements-are-most-likely-to-appear-at-the-least-convenient-time/
- Categories: link
- Tags: quotes

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> How effective was that treatment, I don’t know. (It definitely felt more thought through than the [trash where the skeuomorphism undermined the function itself](https://newsletter.shifthappens.site/archive/a-tale-of-three-skeuomorphs/).) But it is all interesting to me in the larger context of the tensions underlying updates:
> 
> - It’s in a company’s best interest for every user to be on the latest version, since that saves on support headaches.
> - A company needs to believe the newest version is the best ever – even if it’s not – similarly as our brains need to believe we are generally right most of the time, just so we can function.
> 
> That’s why I always appreciate the improvements that prioritize the user experience over the company’s.

*Source:* [“Update announcements are most likely to appear at the least convenient time.”](https://unsung.aresluna.org/update-announcements-are-most-likely-to-appear-at-the-least-convenient-time/)

I think there are other hidden benefits to this too: 

- It built a habit that a restart is all it needed to be on the latest, most secure version and it made the "restart" as simple as - top right -> click 
- It built a habit for the user to _check_ that area in the future. Although with scale, we also realized that most users prefer just closing and opening the browser and it just happens
- Chrome's story is fascinating because the first thing built was the autoupdate mechanism. It was called Omaha (for Windows) and Keystone (for Mac). 

Once again, because of scale - Chrome tends to at least bring these various systems under one umbrella. For example, in mediastack - after maintaining a different media stack for Chrome OS, Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, we decided to unify it all together for better security, rollouts and improved performance. 

Similarly, I believe Omaha 4 is now what's used across the operating systems aka the chromium updater. 

Btw, the new update type that Red Sweater Software is highlighting is already used by [ghostty](https://ghostty.org). It's actually quite the delightful little button. I've also noticed it being adopted by both [codex](https://openai.com/codex) and [antigravity 2](https://antigravity.google/) applications.