If there’s one thing that drives me absolutely crazy, it’s apps that constantly spam your notification shade with ads. You install a free game or some utility app, and suddenly your phone is buzzing every 20 minutes with “limited time offer!” crap. Well, Samsung is finally doing something about it.
As spotted by SammyGuru and reported on by 9to5Google, Samsung has quietly added a new “Block apps with excessive ads” feature to its Device Care settings. And it’s about time.
How this new setting actually works
This isn’t a full-blown ad blocker. So if that’s what you were hoping for, you might be a little disappointed. Instead, it’s a setting that detects when apps are sending what Samsung calls “frequent advertisement alerts” and puts those offending apps into deep sleep. Basically, it stops them from bothering you with notifications at all. You can find any apps that have been put to sleep by heading to Settings > Device care > Care report > Excessive alerts.
There are two modes to choose from. The “basic” setting blocks apps based on Samsung’s own data whenever they’re detected on your phone. Then there’s the “intelligent” mode, which analyzes notifications in real time and blocks apps that the system determines are sending too many ads. Pretty cool, actually.
Now, the rollout situation is a little unclear at the moment. It was highlighted following a recent Device Care update through the Galaxy Store, but some users have noted that it’s been on the Galaxy S26 for the past few months. So it might just be that more Galaxy devices are gaining access to it via One UI 8.5, which is currently in the middle of its global rollout.
The one question that nobody can really answer right now is whether this will actually block Samsung’s own notification ads. Yeah, Samsung is famous for shoving ads into its own notifications, which is something users have complained about for years. So if Samsung’s own ad spam gets a free pass, this whole feature is going to feel a little hypocritical. Let’s hope they actually let it work on their own stuff.
The post Samsung is finally giving you a way to shut up apps that spam notification ads appeared first on Android Headlines.
