Can I block notifications other than SMS and email?

[semmelbroesel]

Hi.
More games these days create all kinds of annoying notifications and don't allow you to disable them - some are ads, some are "helpful pointers" about something happening in your game, some are "helpful notifications" that user x has just sent you a gift basket - and all of them use the same notification sound as SMS messages, and all of them are signs that these games keep running in the background without your permission.

The annoying part is that I use SMS on occasion for work, so I need to keep the notification open and audible for that, and then these games just keep chiming in. It's also very disruptive at work when you can't turn it off without losing SMS notifications.

Some of these games I've tried out that do this are:
- Paradise Island (which I used to like more before it started doing this)
- We Rule (whose tech support has flat out told me they had no plans of allowing the user to choose whether or not to use these notifications)
- CK Zombies (which has an option to disable Notifications, but I have no idea if that's the same kind of notification or not - I just got my first notification from that game and was ready to delete it flat out, but decided to try that setting first - we'll see...)

Is there a way to prevent this from happening?

I guess I could see two approaches - a notification blocker, or one of these task killer apps. I haven't heard of a notification blocker, and some of the things I've read about task killers seem to indicate that they can be two-edged swords at times (please correct me if I'm wrong).

My phone is rooted, so I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get my peace again.

I wish there was a place to simply complain that would cause these programmers to think about what they're doing, but I guess they're not likely to take notice...

Oh, forgot to mention that I switched to a non-standard SMS program (GO SMS Pro) that seems to be able to at least block other SMS programs from using the notification system, so maybe a notification blocker is not completely out of the question...

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[semmelbroesel]

OK, change of plan then - if I can't block the notifications, maybe I can stop the apps from running in the background...

I just tried Advanced Task Killer, but it didn't even show any of the games in question in the list.

Now I seem to remember reading somewhere that there's multiple ways for an app to keep running in the background, with daemons or services and other titles that I don't remember.

Is there an app killer that can prevent these hidden parts from launching, i.e. that goes selectively after the services but lets me run the game manually when I want it to open? ATK doesn't seem to do the trick there...

Thanks!

 

[BigSwoe]

There is an app in the market called AdFree. It blocks most ads by updating the hosts files. May help.

 

[semmelbroesel]

Thanks for the suggestion, but it's not ads unfortunately :-(

Here's a few examples:
- Paradise Island will every once in a while send a notification that a treasure chest was found on the island. Theoretically it's a nice thing to have since you get a bonus if you catch a treasure chest, but again: Any kind of random notification causes my SMS sound to go off...
- We Rule sends all kinds of notifications - "user x wants to be your friend", "user y has written into your profie" or "Your potatoes are ready to harvest" or similar. This game sends notifications multiple times a day.
(I deleted the Zombies game already since it stopped working completely).

So these are notifications that come from within the game, not from ad sites.

So I'm still looking for a way to either block specific non-SMS programs from accessing the notification system or to prevent them from continuously running in the background as whatever they are - services, daemons...

 

[semmelbroesel]

Oh come on, there has to be SOMETHING out there that can prevent specific services/daemons/background tasks from running or notifications from specific programs to go out...

What different types of "running in the background" are there on Android?

Anyone?