Samsung is undoubtedly one of the best Android phone makers in the market. However, their questionable policy to push infuriating advertisement banners in One UI and the built-in apps on every Galaxy device raises many eyebrows.
If you own a Samsung phone, chances are you have seen multiple ads in your notification shade and throughout some of the stock Samsung apps. Many users have even reported pesky pop-ups showing up on their $1000+ Samsung flagships, so you are not alone.
If you are also tired of seeing irrelevant promotions on your Samsung phone, check this guide out to disable them altogether.
Disabling ads on a Samsung phone
Samsung is no stranger to pushing advertisements on their smartphones, but it has become far worse with the launch of the Galaxy S21 lineup. At the time of writing, users reportedly see featured promo banners and fullscreen pop-ups in stock apps like Bixby Home, Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, Phone, and many more.
Such in-app advertisements are seen in about every first-party Samsung app, and there’s no way to stop them once and for all. Despite that, there are a few workarounds to alleviate the ad problem on Samsung devices.
Get rid of personalized ads
The first step in the process is to opt-out of Samsung’s marketing scheme that you might have accidentally agreed to during the first-time setup wizard. Here’s how to disable it to stop receiving personalized ads:
- Start with opening the Settings app on your Samsung phone.
- Scroll down and tap the Privacy option, then select Customization Service under the “Samsung” section.
- Toggle the slider off next to the “Customized ads and direct marketing” option.
After you disable it, Samsung will no longer collect your personal data to serve your personalized ads. Even though it won’t stop advertisements from showing up in the stock Samsung apps, you shouldn’t see them as frequently as before.
It’s worth mentioning that if you have a Samsung phone that hasn’t received the One UI 3 update yet, you won’t be able to disable customized ads. Samsung has unexpectedly removed the following privacy option from the older One UI versions.
Turn off marketing information in the stock apps
The next to stopping advertisements on a Samsung phone is to disable in-app marketing notifications and emails individually. The process is the same for all the first-party apps, with the steps below referring to Samsung Pay.
- Launch Samsung Pay (or a different built-in Samsung app) from the app drawer.
- Tap the three-lined burger icon on the app’s upper-left side and select Settings in the sidebar.
- Now tap the slider next to the Marketing Information option to disable it.
With the following option disabled, the particular Samsung app will stop sending you marketing notifications and emails from Samsung and its third-party partners.
Although a universal toggle would have been convenient, it takes about a few minutes to go through each Samsung app and disable the “Marketing information” option from the app settings.
Disabling promotional notifications on a Samsung phone
Besides in-app advertisements, users also get promotional messages over push notifications. People find it quite infuriating to pick up their Samsung phones just to find out it’s an ad notification. Fortunately, it’s straightforward to disable all of them.
- First, go to the Notifications menu from the Settings app.
- Next, tap More under the “Recently sent” section in the menu.
- Now tap the Most recent option at the top, then select All in the drop-down box.
- After that, scroll down to the Galaxy Store app and tap it.
- On the following screen, toggle off the Promotions notification for the selected app.
- Return to the previous app list and turn off Show notifications for the Samsung Pay and Samsung Push Service apps.
Once you disable notifications from three of Samsung’s most advertisement-heavy apps, you won’t be bothered by the pesky promotional alerts ever again.
Talha Ali is your tech generalist, covering a wide spectrum of topics within the ever-evolving world of technology. With a curiosity for the latest innovations, industry trends, and breakthroughs. Whether it’s hardware, software, emerging technologies, or the intersection of tech with daily life, Talha’s articles provide readers with a well-rounded perspective on the dynamic landscape of the tech industry.