Samsung appears to be preparing a long overdue fix for one of the most frustrating parts of living with a Galaxy phone: the constant drip of spammy notification ads from otherwise legitimate apps. Instead of forcing users to hunt through menus and toggle off alerts one by one, the company is reportedly building a smarter system that can recognize abusive behavior and quietly shut it down in the background. If it ships as described, this change could reshape how I think about installing ad-heavy apps on a Samsung device in the first place.
The upgrade centers on a new version of Samsung’s Android skin that uses artificial intelligence to spot apps that go overboard with promotional pings, then automatically push them out of sight. It is a small tweak on paper, but it targets a daily irritation that has long made Galaxy phones feel noisier than they need to be, and it hints at a broader shift in how Samsung wants to police the worst notification offenders on its platform.
Why Galaxy notification spam became such a sore point
For years, the biggest annoyance with Galaxy phones has not been raw performance or camera quality, it has been the way notifications can spiral out of control once a few aggressive apps get installed. A single shopping app, a free game, or a ride hailing service can start peppering the status bar with limited time offers, referral prompts, and “come back” nudges that have nothing to do with what the user actually asked the phone to do. On a device that might already be juggling alerts from email, messaging, banking, and smart home services, that extra noise quickly becomes overwhelming.
Samsung has long offered manual controls to rein in this behavior, but the burden has sat squarely on the user. To stop a particular app from buzzing, I have had to dig into system settings, find the right notification category, and hope the developer has not buried promotional alerts under a vague label. Reporting on the new feature describes how Samsung Might Finally Fix One Of The Most Annoying Notification Issues On Galaxy Phones by shifting from this reactive, app by app approach to something that can automatically prevent the worst offenders from bothering you in the first place, a change that directly targets the pattern of apps spamming ad notifications once they are installed on a Galaxy device, as detailed in one report on Samsung Might Finally Fix One Of The Most Annoying Notification Issues On Galaxy Phones.
The leaked One UI 8.5 feature that changes the rules
The turning point is a reported addition to Samsung’s next software refresh, One UI 8.5, that would give the system a new way to handle apps that cross the line with advertising. Instead of treating every notification as equal, the software would watch for patterns that look like spam, then intervene without waiting for the user to complain. That is a significant philosophical shift, because it treats notification quality as a core part of the operating system experience rather than a problem to be solved app by app.
According to early descriptions, One UI 8.5 could keep apps that spam notification ads from bothering you by automatically identifying them and placing them into a more restricted state so their alerts no longer flood the shade. The feature is framed as a solution for apps that users still need, such as a budget airline app or a discount marketplace, but that have a habit of abusing notification channels for constant promotions, and the reporting on One UI 8.5 could keep apps that spam notification ads from bothering you explains that the software would rely on system level intelligence rather than user micromanagement to keep those ad notifications in deep sleep.
How “Block apps with excessive ads” is supposed to work
At the heart of the change is a new setting that has surfaced in leaks, labeled along the lines of “Block apps with excessive ads.” The idea is straightforward: instead of asking users to decide which apps are misbehaving, Samsung’s software would monitor how often each app pushes ad related notifications and then automatically clamp down on the ones that cross a certain threshold. From a user perspective, that means fewer random sales alerts and more room for messages that actually matter.
Reporting on Samsung’s upcoming One UI 8.5 update describes how this “Block apps with excessive ads” option may automatically push apps with excessive ad notifications into deep sleep, effectively muting their ability to keep pinging the user without requiring manual tweaks for every single app. The same coverage notes that Samsung’s approach is meant to tackle notification spam without manually tweaking every app, which is exactly the pain point that has made Galaxy phones feel cluttered in daily use, and it highlights that Samsung is baking this into One UI 8.5 as a system feature rather than leaving it to individual developers, as outlined in the description of Samsung’s upcoming One UI 8.5 update.
AI, Android 16, and the brains behind the crackdown
The new notification controls are not just a simple toggle, they are reportedly tied to a broader AI push inside Samsung’s software. Instead of relying on a fixed list of banned apps or a crude counter of how many alerts an app sends, the system is expected to use machine learning to understand which notifications are likely to be ad spam and which are part of normal app behavior. That distinction matters, because a banking app might legitimately send several security alerts in a short period, while a shopping app might blast out a string of discount codes that add no real value.
Samsung’s upcoming One UI 8.5 update, based on Android 16, is described as introducing an AI powered tool to automatically detect and suppress ad spam notifications, then move the offending apps into a “deep sleep” mode for a better user experience. That framing makes clear that Samsung, One UI, and Android are being tightly integrated so the phone can make smarter decisions about which alerts deserve to reach the user, and the reporting on Samsung’s upcoming One UI 8.5 update, based on Android 16 underscores that this is not just a cosmetic tweak but an AI driven system level feature.
What “deep sleep” really means for noisy apps
Putting an app into deep sleep is more than just silencing its notifications. On Samsung phones, deep sleep typically means the system restricts the app’s background activity, network access, and ability to wake itself up unless the user explicitly opens it. Applying that treatment automatically to apps that abuse notification ads would not only quiet the status bar, it would also limit how much those apps can run in the background and potentially improve battery life.
The reports on One UI 8.5 explain that the new notification tool would use AI to detect apps that spam ad notifications and then place those apps into a “deep sleep” mode so their ad notifications are effectively kept in deep sleep as well. That combination of detection and enforcement is what makes the feature more powerful than a simple mute button, because it changes the app’s behavior at the system level rather than just hiding its alerts, and it aligns with the broader description of how One UI 8.5 is designed to keep ad notifications in deep sleep once the system has flagged an app as an excessive advertiser.
Why this matters more than per app notification toggles
On paper, Android has long given users the tools to manage notifications, including per app toggles and granular categories. In practice, those controls are only as effective as the time and patience a user is willing to invest. Many people never touch the notification settings beyond the initial setup, which leaves them vulnerable to whatever behavior an app chooses to adopt later. By moving the responsibility to the system, Samsung is acknowledging that the current model puts too much on the user and not enough on the platform.
The description of Samsung Might Finally Fix One Of The Most Annoying Notification Issues On Galaxy Phones makes this point explicit by noting that the new feature is meant to prevent apps that spam ad notifications from bothering you without requiring constant manual intervention. Instead of expecting users to remember which apps started misbehaving after an update or a new marketing campaign, the system would watch for excessive ad notifications and act on its own, a shift that could make Galaxy phones feel calmer and more predictable in daily use, as highlighted in the coverage of how Samsung Might Finally Fix One Of The Most Annoying Notification Issues On Galaxy Phones in a detailed breakdown of the new feature.
The kinds of apps most likely to be affected
Not every app will trigger the new system, and that is by design. The feature is aimed squarely at software that uses notifications primarily as an advertising channel rather than a way to deliver timely, user requested information. That typically includes free to play games that send daily login reminders with bonus offers, shopping apps that blast out flash sale banners, and some utility apps that bundle third party promotions into their alerts. These are the apps that turn the notification shade into a billboard, and they are the ones most likely to be pushed into deep sleep under the new rules.
Reports on One UI 8.5 emphasize that the feature is meant for apps you still need to use but that tend to spam ads through notifications, such as services that send constant promotional alerts alongside the occasional useful message. By automatically identifying those patterns and moving the offending apps into a restricted state, Samsung is trying to strike a balance between letting users keep access to their favorite services and protecting them from a flood of ad notifications, a balance that is central to the way One UI 8.5 is being framed as a solution for apps that spam notification ads while still remaining installed on the device.
What this signals about Samsung’s broader software strategy
Stepping back, the move to automatically block apps with excessive ads fits into a larger pattern of Samsung using software to differentiate its phones beyond hardware specs. As Android itself becomes more standardized across manufacturers, features like smarter notification management, AI powered tools, and tighter integration between system services and user experience become key selling points. By tackling a pain point that affects daily use, Samsung is signaling that it understands where its software has fallen short and is willing to use its control over One UI to fix it.
The fact that Samsung is tying this feature to One UI 8.5, which is described as being based on Android 16 and equipped with an AI powered tool to detect and suppress ad spam notifications, shows that the company sees notification quality as part of a broader AI narrative rather than a niche tweak. It suggests that future updates could apply similar intelligence to other parts of the system, such as prioritizing important messages, organizing alerts by context, or even suggesting when to silence certain categories altogether, building on the same foundation that is being used to keep ad notifications in deep sleep for apps that cross the line.
What Galaxy users should realistically expect next
Even with all the promise, it is important to keep expectations grounded. The feature is still tied to an upcoming software release, and there is always a gap between how a tool is described in early reporting and how it behaves on real phones. Some apps may find ways to tweak their notification patterns to avoid being flagged, and Samsung will have to fine tune its AI models to avoid accidentally throttling legitimate alerts that users actually want to see. For now, the most realistic takeaway is that Samsung is finally treating notification spam as a system level problem rather than a user chore.
Reports on Samsung Might Finally Fix One Of The Most Annoying Notification Issues On Galaxy Phones note that we are still a long way off from seeing the feature on every Galaxy device, since it depends on the rollout of One UI 8.5 and, by extension, Android 16. That timeline means users with older phones or carrier locked models may have to wait longer to benefit, but it also gives Samsung time to refine the AI powered detection and deep sleep enforcement before it reaches a wider audience, increasing the chances that when the feature does arrive, it will meaningfully reduce the notification clutter that has dogged Galaxy phones for years.
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