diff --git a/js/ui/notificationDaemon.js b/js/ui/notificationDaemon.js
index 71d8e6cc5..ff4c26caf 100644
--- a/js/ui/notificationDaemon.js
+++ b/js/ui/notificationDaemon.js
@@ -63,9 +63,9 @@ class FdoNotificationDaemon {
 
     _iconForNotificationData(icon) {
         if (icon) {
-            if (icon.substr(0, 7) === 'file://')
+            if (icon.startsWith('file://'))
                 return new Gio.FileIcon({file: Gio.File.new_for_uri(icon)});
-            else if (icon[0] === '/')
+            else if (icon.startsWith('/'))
                 return new Gio.FileIcon({file: Gio.File.new_for_path(icon)});
             else
                 return new Gio.ThemedIcon({name: icon});