Earlier today, I got the mobile phone of my father-in-law into my hands. I was just going to help him connect to a Wi-Fi network, but I always find additional tasks whenever I touch this device.
The device is an Android device (which I like a lot), but there are more trouble and dangers when it comes to viruses, malware, spyware, and other stuff on Android (compared to iOS). So, I cleared all notifications at once (lots of notifications really annoy me). But, after I had cleared all of them, it only took 5-10 seconds, and suddenly new notifications started to pop up. They were supposed to come from Chrome and Y0uTube Best (or something like that), but I didn't really understand what was going on. The only thing I understood, is that such notifications would give me high blood pressure (in fact, it did from the first second I saw them).
I asked my father-in-law (just to be sure), and he had no clue what they were all about. So, I spent the next 10-15 minutes fixing the problem. This is what I did, and what you should do if you face similar trouble.
Clean up the notifications in your Chrome browser
Check which application is supposed to show you the notifications, pop-ups, or whatever you might call it. You can try to uninstall the application. If the notifications are coming from Chrome or some other app, you can also manually go to settings and turn off ALL notifications coming from that app. That will most likely get the job done.
In Chrome, you can also open the application, go to settings and manually configure the notifications. There you can decide which websites are allowed to show you notifications and which should not be allowed.
In the case of the mobile phone I just checked, this solved the problem. I disabled notifications from a ton of websites, in fact, I disabled all notifications, just to get rid of those pop-ups.
But, it might easily happen that you see notifications and ads and pop-ups, but the problem doesn't come from Chrome or some other application you can easily control. What should you do then?
Maybe your device is infected?
It is smart to run an antivirus program on your device, no matter what. I don't really like them, because they drain the battery, and always show some notification themselves about protecting you at all times. But, it is still useful. Besides having an antivirus program running, it can also be smart to run a malware scanner in order to check your system for programs installed with malicious intents.
Be careful when installing programs
This is some instructions for the future. If you have followed the instructions about, you should have removed unnecessary notifications and also removed viruses and malware on your device (if you had any). But, now it is time to think about the future.
- When you install a program, read through the information, and don't give an app more permissions than you really believe it will need. For example, if you only want to run WhatsApp to chat and write and nothing else, why give it permission to read your files, see your photos, and so on?
- Don't click yes to any suggestion during the installation process or while running a program, just to reach your goal faster. Often malware, spyware, and adware are hidden and you will eventually answer yes to install and run programs and apps you don't really want or need.
These were some short instructions on how to limit the number of notifications on your Android device, and how to get rid of notifications you don't want to see anymore, especially focusing on those coming from Google Chrome.
I hope you have found the instructions useful. Should you need further help or advice, write a comment.
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