Samsung’s next big software update, One UI 8.5, is shaping up to be more than a visual refresh.
Alongside the features already shown in early hands-on videos, the update will introduce a quietly powerful tool aimed at one of Android’s most persistent annoyances: apps that bombard you with ads.
One UI 8.5 should debut with the Galaxy S26 series in February, but Galaxy S25 owners are expected to get first dibs via a public beta rolling out in the next few days. And buried inside the Device care settings is a new feature that feels tailor-made for anyone tired of being nagged by notification spam.
According to leaker @tarunvats33, One UI 8.5 adds an option called “Block apps with excessive ads.” Rather than waiting for you to identify and manually deep-sleep the culprits, Samsung’s system will scan incoming notifications, detect which ones are ad-heavy, and automatically put those apps to sleep in the background. In other words, if an app keeps pushing promotional notifications, One UI will quietly shut it down for you.
Samsung already lets users “deep sleep” apps as a workaround, but it requires manual effort and a bit of detective work. This new automated approach takes the human guesswork out, though Samsung notes it won’t always get things perfectly right. Fortunately, a single misread won’t immediately block an app; the system will only act if the ad notifications become frequent, which should minimise false positives.
The feature appears to be off by default, based on leaked screenshots. Once the update rolls out, you’ll be able to find the toggle inside Device care → Settings (accessible via the three-dot menu in the top-right corner). It’s not the most obvious location, but for Galaxy users dealing with ad-heavy apps they can’t or don’t want to uninstall, it could be a genuinely useful quality-of-life upgrade.
With One UI 8.5, Samsung seems ready to take a more proactive stance against noisy apps, something many Android users will likely welcome.
