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Disable notifications from select Android apps

With the most recent update, Plants vs Zombies 2 for Android received a very annoying habit. If you play one of the survival levels and leave the game, it will wait about 15-30 minutes and then send you a push notification teasing you to get you to play more. Most apps can be configured to not send certain notifications but I have not been able to find any such settings in this case.

“You reached Level 14 in the Pyramid of Doom. The Zombies say you can’t go higher. Prove ’em wrong.”

First things first, PvZ2 is a game. I play it when I want to play it, not when they tell me to play. Their mangled free-to-play model is bad enough, these annoying notifications almost tipped the scale to the app being uninstalled. Regardless, PvZ2 is only an example of an app whose notification you might wish to silence. I would have considered similar treatment for Twitter but I was able to find the in-app settings that controlled notifications. Instead, even if they didn’t provide a way to turn off the notifications, the Android system provides a way.

Navigate to Settings -> More tab -> Application manager

Find the app whose notifications that you wish to control and tap it. There, you can see a checkbox below the Force stop and Uninstall buttons that reads ‘Show notifications’. Simply uncheck that box and you will no longer receive notifications from the app.

This was performed on a Samsung Galaxy S3. I have not been able to confirm if this is for all Android devices or just Samsung-brand Android devices.

Update: Plants Vs Zombies 2 now has a setting to disable notifications. From the title screen, hit the wrench and uncheck the box to “allow notifications”. There are now additional notifications from the incorporation of Google Games. Launch the Google Games app and configure your settings there if you would like to stop achivement and other types of notifications.