Samsung Galaxy smartphones now block ads in push notifications

The Samsung Device Care app offers a range of features to help identify apps that consume excessive power or memory and offers features to protect the battery. The update to version 13.8.80.7 now introduces a function designed to prevent annoying push notifications.

The feature, which Samsung calls "Intelligent Blocking", analyzes push notifications to assess whether they are advertising. If an app sends such push notifications with an advertising character too frequently, it is put into "deep sleep" mode and cannot deliver any further notifications. Samsung emphasizes that the division into advertising and useful push notifications does not always work correctly. If an app whose push notifications you do not want to miss is blocked, it can be unblocked in the settings of the Samsung Device Care app.

This new feature of the Device Care app is first available on smartphones with One UI 8.5 such as the Samsung Galaxy S26 ($799 on Amazon), the Galaxy S26+ or the Galaxy S26 Ultra. In the Samsung Galaxy Store and in the Google Play Store an older version of the app is currently still being distributed, but if you bypass the stores via sideloading, you can already find version 13.8.80.7 on platforms such as APKMirror. As usual, it is likely to take several weeks before the update is made available to all users of compatible smartphones via the official channels.