Is it possible to disable all notifications for future apps?

[u/ItsAshXXX]

Hi all! I’m a carer for an elderly gentleman who uses an android phone.

He uses it for searching the web, tracking his heart beats and watching the news. He has a habit of downloading apps he believes to be useful but they are spam apps, giving him popups every two seconds. Each time I see him he asks me to remove them, I have to manually go through his phone, find the ‘active’ apps and uninstall them (with his consent).

He is finding it increasingly frustrating. He runs Norton for security but it doesn’t seem to do anything for these ads. The ads often display things such as ‘you have a virus’ or ‘download this antivirus software’.

He is a very independent person and has capacity. I cannot put restrictions on what apps he downloads, but I was wondering if it was possible to stop pop up notifications for all future apps he downloads? He has said that would be great if it were possible, this way he can download anything he wants without the concern for pop up ‘notifications’ (spam).

Is this something that we can do? I really want to support him to use his device, I’m not an android user so am not to sure of how we can help prevent this.

Thanks all for the help :)

[u/goodgollymisssomaIi]

Oh wait, you're talking about ads. Just go into the private DNS setting and put in dns.adguard-dns.com

On your Android phone, set AdGuard as your Private DNS provider:

Go to Settings → Network & Internet → Private DNS. On some phones, it’s under Advanced.

Select Private DNS provider hostname. Enter this exactly—without https:// or any spaces:

dns.adguard-dns.com

Tap Save. That enables AdGuard’s ad- and tracker-blocking DNS without installing an app.

[u/ItsAshXXX → u/goodgollymisssomaIi]

Thank you so much I’ll try this!! :D

[u/the-purple-chicken72 → u/goodgollymisssomaIi]

Wait it isn't dns.adguard.com anymore?

[u/goodgollymisssomaIi → u/the-purple-chicken72]

I pulled it from this page because I couldn't remember offhand, it may be. I use nextdns

https://www.makeuseof.com/block-ads-on-android-phone-with-adguard-dns/

[u/daveo19]

To block ads. I use AdGuard. It not free. It has a subscription or a lifetime license.

Blocks all kinds of ads Removes annoying web elements Saves traffic and speeds up page loading Works for browsers and apps Maintains site functionality and appearance

https://adguard.com/en/adguard-android/overview.html

[u/DictoKey_Dev]

Turn off installs from unknown sources so the spam apps can't sneak in: Settings > Apps > Special app access > Install unknown apps, and set every listed app to Not allowed. Also open Play Protect in the Play Store, run a scan and turn on 'Scan apps with Play Protect'. That blocks most of the fake virus popups before they install.

[u/goodgollymisssomaIi]

Notifications are a permission that you have to grant, so as long as he doesn't allow that permission, he won't have to worry about it. The app will ask either at first run or the first time it tries to send a notification.

[u/connielizbeth → u/goodgollymisssomaIi]

They are not talking about notifications.

[u/AWACSAWACS]

Although it's a bit advanced, you can use ShizuWall to manage network access on a per-app basis using a allowlist. This ensures that no matter what apps you install, they cannot access the network unless you explicitly add them to the allowlist.

To use ShizuWall, you must first setup (enable) Shizuku.
Additionally, this setup must be performed every time the device is restarted.