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I have a Galaxy Nexus that's running 4.2.2. Certain apps, like Words with Friends, occasionally send spammy notifications for trying out a different game or something like that. They won't dismiss when I press the dismiss all button, and I can't manually swipe to remove them. I have to actually press the notification which takes me to the app.

Obviously I don't want to have to bother opening and immediately closing an app to remove a notification. The simplest solution of course would be to not install apps that do this, but in general, is there a way to have more control over your notification bar?

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AFAIK, with Android 4.2+ you can regulate on a per-app-base whether you want to see notifications or not. Long-pressing a notification should open a menu, from which you can navigate to the corresponding place, and define you don't want to see notifications from that app anymore. (As I have no device with 4.2+, I cannot check myself).

On the other hand, "spammy messages" sound like they come from some advertizement module, such as Airpush or Leadbolt. You can verify that with Ad-Scanners (I recommend AppBrain Ad Detector). If I guessed right with that, you have two ways to react on this: for Airpush, there's a way to Opt - out, same seems to apply for Leadbolt (Opt-Out). AppBrain Ad Detector clearly shows you which network is involved, see below screenshots.

AppBrain Ad detector AppBrain Ad Detector
AppBrain Ad Detector (source: Google Play; click images for larger variant)

Or you consider avoiding apps using such an aggressive advertizement, uninstall yours, and watch out for a less offensive alternative -- that's what would be my choice. I have full understanding for devs to fund their fremium apps using ads -- but please, leave those adds where they belong: inside the app they are funding. Pushing ads to the notification bar, or adding "funny shortcuts" to the user's homescreen, is intruding the user's privacy, and has no connection to the app at all (in most cases, users even have no clue where that "stuff" comes from).

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  • I'm certain it's just from these particular apps and not some ad app. Thanks for the instructions on disabling notifications for a given app. The only problem is I want to see most notifications for them, i.e. when it's my turn to play.
    – John Straka
    Commented Jun 14, 2013 at 15:10
  • Yeah, unfortunately Zynga, while it isn't the worst of the lot, isn't the best either. If I wasn't actively playing some Words With Friends games with family members I would have deleted it.
    – jcollie
    Commented Jun 14, 2013 at 15:53
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    @JohnStraka that would leave some ad blocker, if your device is rooted -- or something that blocks the ad modules themselves (there are tools that modify the Dalvik cache accordingly -- like Lucky Patcher, check this article :)
    – Izzy
    Commented Jun 14, 2013 at 18:20

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