What Samsung’s New Notification Spam Filter Actually Does
Samsung’s latest Device Care update adds a built-in notification spam filter designed to tame apps that treat your Galaxy phone like a billboard. Instead of you hunting through settings for every noisy app, Device Care now detects “frequent advertisement alerts” and steps in automatically. When an app is flagged, Device Care moves it into Deep Sleep. That cuts off its background activity and revokes its ability to keep spamming your notification bar with promotional alerts or deceptive ad-style pop-ups. The app remains installed, but it stays quiet until you deliberately open it again. This approach targets aggressive push notifications and adware-style apps without forcing you to disable all alerts or uninstall tools you occasionally need. It’s a focused way to get a cleaner, calmer notification shade while still keeping important messages and system alerts flowing as normal.
Check Your Device Care Version and Enable the Feature
To use Samsung’s notification spam filter, you first need the updated Device Care app. The feature appears in Device Care version 13.8.80.7, rolling out through the Galaxy Store on select Galaxy phones, including the Galaxy S26 series. Open the Galaxy Store, tap the menu icon, then go to the Updates section to see if a Device Care update is available. Once installed, open your phone’s Settings, scroll to Device care, and look for a new option related to blocking apps with excessive ads or frequent advertisement alerts. If you don’t see it yet, the update may still be rolling out for your device or One UI version. When it does appear, you can turn it on with a single toggle, immediately putting Samsung’s notification control features to work and giving you a first line of defense against Galaxy phone spam ads.
Choose Between Basic and Intelligent Notification Blocking
Samsung offers two modes for its notification spam filter, giving you control over how aggressive the blocking should be. Basic blocking relies on Samsung’s internal list of known ad-spamming apps. If a match is found on your phone, Device Care automatically restricts that app and pushes it into Deep Sleep, preventing it from sending more intrusive ads. Intelligent blocking goes a step further by analyzing notifications in real time. It looks at each alert, checks whether it appears to be a marketing message, and evaluates how frequently those ads are sent. If an app crosses the line, it is deep-slept on the spot. Samsung warns that Intelligent mode may occasionally flag legitimate notifications, so it’s a trade-off between stronger spam protection and the small risk of missing a useful alert.
Review Blocked Apps and Fine-Tune Your Notification Control
Even with automation, you still retain full control over what gets blocked. When Device Care flags an app for excessive alerts, it doesn’t disappear entirely. You can review every restricted app by going to Settings, opening Device care, selecting Care report, and then tapping Excessive alerts. There you’ll see a list of apps that were deep-slept because of frequent advertisement notifications or aggressive marketing behavior. From this screen, you can unblock apps, restore their notification permissions, or leave them restricted if you’re happy to keep them quiet. If a critical app is mistakenly flagged, simply open it to wake it from Deep Sleep and adjust its permissions to your liking. This combination of automatic filtering and manual overrides turns One UI notification control into a powerful, user-friendly way to manage Galaxy phone spam ads without constantly digging through individual app settings.