We've all been there—you're using your Samsung Galaxy phone when suddenly you're bombarded with promotional notifications for apps you barely use. Whether it's a shopping app pinging you with "limited-time deals" every few hours or a game launcher constantly trying to pull you back in, notification spam has become a genuine problem for Android users. Samsung has apparently been listening to these frustrations, and early code discoveries in One UI 8.5 suggest the company is developing a comprehensive solution that could finally give users the upper hand against excessive advertising notifications.
The leaked feature represents Samsung's first system-level attempt to tackle ad spam automatically, rather than forcing users to manually configure dozens of individual app settings. Research from Android Central indicates this new functionality will be integrated directly into the Device Care section, making it easily accessible for users who want a cleaner notification experience. Most importantly, according to Mint, Samsung recognizes that most people simply swipe notifications away rather than digging through complex settings menus to fine-tune each app individually.
How Samsung's ad-blocking system actually works
Here's what makes this system particularly sophisticated: The new "Block apps with excessive ads" feature operates through a two-pronged approach that balances automation with user control. Discoveries by tipster Tarun Vats reveal that the system offers both basic and intelligent blocking modes, each designed to catch different types of promotional content using distinct detection methods.
In basic mode, Samsung will target applications it already recognizes as frequent ad senders, automatically flagging them when they're detected on your device. This approach leverages Samsung's existing database of problematic apps—think of it as a curated blocklist that Samsung has built from analyzing user complaints and app behavior patterns across millions of Galaxy devices worldwide.
The intelligent mode takes this further by using on-device analysis to examine notification content and determine whether alerts are promotional in nature. This means your phone will actually read incoming notifications, analyze their language patterns, and identify marketing keywords like "limited time," "flash sale," or "exclusive offer" to distinguish ads from legitimate service alerts.
When an app gets flagged by either system, One UI 8.5 will push it into deep sleep mode, effectively preventing it from waking itself up or running background processes. While Samsung already uses deep sleep for rarely-opened apps, this new implementation extends the concept to actively used apps that abuse notification privileges—essentially quarantining them until you manually open them.
What makes this different from current solutions?
Samsung's approach addresses a fundamental flaw in existing notification management: the burden of manual configuration. Current One UI versions already provide ways to fight back against notification spam, but they require users to become notification archeologists, digging through individual app settings to disable specific channels.
Right now, you can dive into Settings, navigate to the notifications page, and manually adjust channels for each problematic app, ensuring only transactional alerts remain active while marketing messages get muted. Device Care also lets you manually put specific apps to sleep to limit their background activity. But these solutions require you to identify problem apps yourself and understand the difference between "promotional notifications" and "order updates" within each app's settings—something most users never attempt.
Samsung acknowledges that instead of assuming every user will fine-tune dozens of apps, the phone itself needs to do more of the work. This represents a shift from reactive user management to proactive system-level intervention, where the phone learns to recognize spam patterns automatically.
The new system also differs from traditional ad-blocking approaches by targeting notification-level spam rather than in-app advertisements. Unlike existing ad-blocking tools that require VPN setups or DNS modifications, Samsung's solution operates at the notification framework level, intercepting promotional alerts before they reach your notification shade regardless of how developers configure their apps.
Which apps will benefit most from automatic blocking?
The feature will be most effective against specific categories of applications that have turned notification abuse into an engagement strategy. According to Mint's analysis, the blocking system makes the most sense for apps you don't rely on in real-time—essentially those that prioritize marketing reach over user experience.
The primary targets include shopping platforms that bombard you with daily "flash sales," game launchers that constantly promote new titles and in-app events, wallpaper and theme applications that push content updates as notifications, coupon services that flood you with location-based deals, and social media apps that send promotional alerts about premium features. These apps have essentially weaponized notifications, turning what should be a communication channel into an advertising platform.
However, the system faces significant challenges with apps that mix legitimate and promotional content. For services you depend on—like payments, banking, ride hailing, food delivery, tickets, and work tools—you'll still want to manage notifications manually rather than risking automated blocking. The complexity arises when a banking app sends both "Your payment is due" (essential) and "Try our new investment products" (promotional) through the same notification channel.
Early indications suggest the feature will work across all Galaxy devices, extending protection beyond smartphones to tablets and other Samsung hardware. Additionally, apps placed in deep sleep won't frequently wake to push ads or run background tasks, creating secondary benefits like improved battery life and reduced background data consumption.
The challenges ahead for Samsung's blocking system
While the concept sounds promising, Samsung faces the classic problem of automated content moderation: achieving accuracy without creating false positives that frustrate users. The system will need to find a balance where the worst spammy apps are contained while critical services still reach users, and early testing will be crucial to calibrating this sensitivity properly.
The intelligent blocking mode may leverage Galaxy AI for understanding notification context, but Samsung has already acknowledged that "this determination may not be accurate" in early builds. This honesty is refreshing, but it highlights the technical challenge of teaching AI to distinguish between "Your order has shipped" and "Get 20% off your next order" when both might come from the same retail app.
The new feature won't remove ads inside apps, won't catch every annoying alert, and will almost certainly make wrong calls initially, particularly as the AI systems learn to differentiate context across different languages, cultures, and app categories. Consider the complexity of determining whether a restaurant's "Today's special: 50% off pasta" notification is a legitimate menu update or spam marketing.
The real test will begin once One UI 8.5 reaches beta users in different regions, where diverse app ecosystems and notification cultures will stress-test the system's accuracy across different markets. If the blocking is too gentle, users won't notice improvements; if it's too aggressive, people will complain about missing important alerts and disable the feature entirely.
What this means for the future of notification management
Samsung's move represents a broader industry shift toward intelligent device management that anticipates user needs rather than requiring constant manual intervention. One UI 8.5 is expected to be based on Android 16 and will likely debut on the Galaxy S26 series before rolling out to recent flagships and upper mid-range models.
The timing aligns with growing user frustration over notification pollution across the Android ecosystem. What started as a useful way for apps to provide timely updates has devolved into a constant battle for attention, where every app treats your notification shade like prime advertising real estate.
Samsung has clearly heard from Galaxy users worldwide who are tired of notification spam, and One UI 8.5 represents their first comprehensive system-level response to this widespread frustration. Beta testing is rumored to begin soon, potentially starting December 8 in selected regions including the United States, United Kingdom, Korea, and Germany, giving us our first real-world glimpse of how well automated ad detection works in practice.
This development could influence other Android manufacturers to implement similar features, potentially forcing app developers to reconsider their notification strategies when faced with widespread automated blocking across major smartphone brands.
The bottom line on Samsung's ad-blocking future
Because this is still pre-release software, the exact placement, name, and behavior of the "excessive ads" option can change, but its presence in internal builds suggests Samsung is committed to addressing notification spam as a core user experience issue. The company's willingness to develop system-level intervention tools indicates they view this as a competitive advantage worth significant engineering investment.
If the system can quietly push even a handful of the loudest notification offenders into deep sleep, everyday device usage will feel significantly calmer. The success of this feature will ultimately depend on Samsung's ability to train their detection algorithms effectively while providing users with granular control when the automation gets things wrong.
While we won't see perfect accuracy from day one, the foundation being laid in One UI 8.5 could evolve into a genuinely transformative tool for managing the notification chaos that has become commonplace on modern smartphones. For Galaxy users who've grown tired of their devices constantly competing for attention through promotional pings, Samsung's upcoming ad-blocking system represents a promising step toward reclaiming control over their digital experience. Even modest success in automatically silencing the most egregious notification abusers could make the difference between a phone that serves you and one that constantly interrupts you.
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