how can I find out which app is pushing ads to my notification bar?

[wdavidson]

For the last week I have been receiving a random ad in my notification bar at exactly 9:15 am every day. I uninstalled some apps that I had updated around that time, but the ads are still being pushed to the notification bar every day. Is there anyway to figure out the culprit app so I can uninstall it? I hate receiving these ads in my notification bar. Any help is appreciated!

Bill

 

[DenverRalphy]

Are the ads generic? Do they specialize in sports teams? Does it advertise coupons?

To narrow it down, you may need to be a bit more specific. I'm guessing any app that has the internet access permission could be the culprit, but that's a pretty large ballpark.

But for what it's worth, I think the only time I've ever seen what appeared to be an actual Ad in my notification bar was the result of a coupons app.

[edit]Oh yeah, now that I think of it, games from Magma Mobile (like Bubble Blast) tend to put ads in the notification bar, but those ads only promote their own products so I'd think you would have noticed that.

 

[Dark Wizard Matoya]

Sounds like one of your apps might be using those horrible Air Push ads. I hope you find out which app is the culprit and then share that information so I can be sure to avoid that app at all cost.

 

[wdavidson]

The ads aren't really related to each other. Seems like half the ads are for finding singles in my area and the other half are something to do with saving money on various products. I've checked to see what apps are running in the background but haven't seen anything that looks like it could be the cause of it. Guess I'll just try uninstalling a different app each day until I narrow it down. Hopefully it will stop after I uninstall the app that caused it to start.

Bill

 

[DenverRalphy]

I'm not judging (I could be wrong) , but based on those two types of ads, it smells like a paid app that was acquired for free from an alternate source.

 

[Tre Lawrence]

I didn't even know apps could do that. Wow.

 

[bleedblue]

The ads aren't really related to each other. Seems like half the ads are for finding singles in my area and the other half are something to do with saving money on various products. I've checked to see what apps are running in the background but haven't seen anything that looks like it could be the cause of it. Guess I'll just try uninstalling a different app each day until I narrow it down. Hopefully it will stop after I uninstall the app that caused it to start.

Bill

*oops, misquote


This (AirPush ads) does seem to be the most logical reason. And people have been bringing this up more, as of late, around various forums.

Check out some of the apps you have recently downloaded, and even check Market comments. Chances are someone has already piped up about this before uninstalling.

The AirPush ads are the WORST idea I've ever heard of. I only have a few free apps, but even if one of my favorite ones started doing this I would drop them in a heartbeat.

Look around, could also use Titanium to freeze apps you think may be at fault as see if the ads continue.

I'm not familiar, at all (I swear), about DLing paid ads from free sources (a total no no, makes you 'teh ghey') but I haven't heard of this happening unless AirPush was somehow added after the fact. Which wouldn't make much sense as it's not netting the original pirater / poster any money. Obviously pirating apps is a huge way to come across some malicious apps but I wouldn't believe they'd add AirPush to the app.

Try freezing apps, checking market comments etc etc

I'm betting AirPush is at fault.

 

[Ricky Babalu]

My guess is that one of the apps you recently updated had "Air push" embedded as part of the update. I would make sure to go to the Market and make sure you uncheck "Allow Automatic Updating" for all your apps to prevent this from happening again.

 

[wdavidson]

I have only installed apps from the Android Market and Amazon App Store, so it came from one of those. I would never installed a hacked app on my phone. I have always just assumed it was AirPush, as that seemed to be the most likely culprit. I will never support an app that uses AirPush.

 

[wdavidson]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded and offered some suggestions. Turns out the app causing the ads was "Notification Notes Free" by a developer named CurveFish. It was an app that allowed you to post reminder notes to yourself in the notification bar. It's a shame the developer implemented AirPush into the app in the last update since I did find it handy on occasion. I have uninstalled it and will search for a suitable replacement app.

Bill

 

[Ricky Babalu]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded and offered some suggestions. Turns out the app causing the ads was "Notification Notes Free" by a developer named CurveFish. It was an app that allowed you to post reminder notes to yourself in the notification bar. It's a shame the developer implemented AirPush into the app in the last update since I did find it handy on occasion. I have uninstalled it and will search for a suitable replacement app.

Bill

I knew it!! Glad you found the culprit.

 

[teleclimber]

CurveFish did this? I can't believe he/she/they stooped to that level. So disappointing. I use some of their widgets. I expected airpush to be used by lousy app makers, not the ones who make the good stuff. Blah.

 

[sakasune]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded and offered some suggestions. Turns out the app causing the ads was "Notification Notes Free" by a developer named CurveFish. It was an app that allowed you to post reminder notes to yourself in the notification bar. It's a shame the developer implemented AirPush into the app in the last update since I did find it handy on occasion. I have uninstalled it and will search for a suitable replacement app.

Bill

I use Astrid as a reminder app. I think it's technically a task list app, but I just set the due date/time to when I want the reminder. Then I can either "Snooze" the reminder until later or leave it my notification bar until I actually do whatever it is reminding me of. There's also a widget that can display your to do list, that's handy for seeing what I need to do before the reminder comes up.

 

[Nirvana328]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded and offered some suggestions. Turns out the app causing the ads was "Notification Notes Free" by a developer named CurveFish. It was an app that allowed you to post reminder notes to yourself in the notification bar. It's a shame the developer implemented AirPush into the app in the last update since I did find it handy on occasion. I have uninstalled it and will search for a suitable replacement app.

Bill

Hey I'm glad you found the culprit to this obscene ad serving method. FYI, if you can, you should go back, and rate the app as 1 star in the market, and comment that the app uses AirPush, and then mark it as inappropriate and then when they ask why, say it is a malicious app. This is not the first time a developer has used this type of malicious advertising, and we need to send a strong message like the users in this article below states.

Google saw the huge outcry, and pulled the app, and with the overwhelmingly negative reviews of the app, even the developer finally saw the light. See below, and if you guys see someone in the forums complaining about notification bar spam, point them to this article and advise that they do the same. We need to stop this before it gets out of hand. See the article below:

AirPush Sends Ads to Your Notification Pane (And Why I Think It’s Horrible)

 

[Dark Wizard Matoya]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded and offered some suggestions. Turns out the app causing the ads was "Notification Notes Free" by a developer named CurveFish. It was an app that allowed you to post reminder notes to yourself in the notification bar. It's a shame the developer implemented AirPush into the app in the last update since I did find it handy on occasion. I have uninstalled it and will search for a suitable replacement app.

Bill

I'm glad you were able to identify the offending app, and thanks for sharing. Now I know which app to avoid and which developer not to support. Seriously, those Air Push ads are one of the worst things ever to happen to Android. I hope they never, ever catch on. I used to think that there wasn't anything that would make me leave Android for an inferior platform, but if Air Push ads catch on and I'm having to wade through and abundance of intrusive annoying ads just to get to my actual notifications, that would do it.

 

[ekz13]

CurveFish did this? I can't believe he/she/they stooped to that level. So disappointing. I use some of their widgets. I expected airpush to be used by lousy app makers, not the ones who make the good stuff. Blah.

same here, I have like 6-7 of thier widgets.. weird though I never got any of that spam.. I'll have to watch

 

[motionblurrr]

Hey I'm glad you found the culprit to this obscene ad serving method. FYI, if you can, you should go back, and rate the app as 1 star in the market, and comment that the app uses AirPush, and then mark it as inappropriate and then when they ask why, say it is a malicious app. This is not the first time a developer has used this type of malicious advertising, and we need to send a strong message like the users in this article below states.

Google saw the huge outcry, and pulled the app, and with the overwhelmingly negative reviews of the app, even the developer finally saw the light. See below, and if you guys see someone in the forums complaining about notification bar spam, point them to this article and advise that they do the same. We need to stop this before it gets out of hand. See the article below:

AirPush Sends Ads to Your Notification Pane (And Why I Think It?s Horrible)

Did this.

Thanks to OP for figuring out which app it was. I stopped using it a while ago after I bought Notes Everything (which has a pin to notification bar feature) but left it on the phone because I wasn't sure if I was going to like using Notes Everything for that. Well, good bye Notification Notes!

 

[Dark Wizard Matoya]

Did this.

Thanks to OP for figuring out which app it was. I stopped using it a while ago after I bought Notes Everything (which has a pin to notification bar feature) but left it on the phone because I wasn't sure if I was going to like using Notes Everything for that. Well, good bye Notification Notes!

Note Everything is awesome. I've been using it for a couple months, I've bought the paid version, and I'm never going to need another note taking app. It's great.

And I've said it before and I'll say it again, I really hope these Air Push ads never catch on. I know that advertising is a necessary evil but it is an evil none the less and there is already far too much of it out there as it is. The Android Notification bar was designed to bring the user useful information, not to force more intrusive advertising down the user's throat. I don't think it's too much to ask for devs to keep they're ads in app and off my notification bar. If I ever unknowingly install an app that uses Air Push ads that app will immediately be uninstalled and any developer who uses Air Push ads will never get any support of any kind from me.

 

[koopakid08]

Re: how can I find out which app is pushing ads to my notificatio

Guys I found an article about how to remove them forever. air push made an opt out app. Link in the article.

 

[Astrodroid]

Re: how can I find out which app is pushing ads to my notificatio

For anyone who finds this later, use the free AirPush Detector app to detect which apps on your phone are using the AirPush ad platform. It doesn't block the notification spam or delete the apps, just tells you which apps are the culprits. Then you can delete the offending apps if you want. Works great.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.brosmike.airpushdetector