• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

any way to block/hide apps and notifications from the store?

thank you but it's not a notification (those are already all blocked for every apps except whatsapp)
it's a popup related to a covid app that pops every time i open the store
and i bloody hate it


I've not seen anything like that, and there's many different Covid apps in the Play Store, all of which are irrelevant for me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MrJavi and Dannydet
Upvote 0
it's the official government app

I am using the play store app


Which one? Because they all look like official state govt or authority Covid tracing apps. All irrelevant to me because I'm actually in China, which uses Wechat for Covid track and trace.

Screenshot_20201013_224351_com.android.vending.jpg
 
Upvote 0
it's the official government app
Which country are you in? This is an international forum, we are from all sorts of different places.

That said, your use of "bloody" sounds rather British, and the UK Government have paid for a lot of ads for their app. So if it's that one the fact that it's a Government app is perfectly compatible with the pop-up being an ad served by one of your other apps. I can say that I've never had a pop-up from the Play Store app, which makes me even more suspicious that this is actually some other app serving this (despite the fact that it happens whenever you open the Play Store, and despite the fact that doing that would break the Play Store rules on how apps are allowed to serve apps, as they are forbidden from interfering with another app).
 
Upvote 0
Which country are you in? This is an international forum, we are from all sorts of different places.

That said, your use of "bloody" sounds rather British, and the UK Government have paid for a lot of ads for their app. So if it's that one the fact that it's a Government app is perfectly compatible with the pop-up being an ad served by one of your other apps. I can say that I've never had a pop-up from the Play Store app, which makes me even more suspicious that this is actually some other app serving this (despite the fact that it happens whenever you open the Play Store, and despite the fact that doing that would break the Play Store rules on how apps are allowed to serve apps, as they are forbidden from interfering with another app).


OT
That reminded me, a few of my students picked up "bloody hell" from when they watched scenes from Titanic and Harry Potter.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Look in the notification information for Google Play Services ("exposure notifications" category in English). Play Services is, in practice, the only way they could roll this out: if you waited for most manufacturers to release system updates we'd be into the pandemic after next before most Android users got it ;).

But as this is the first case I've heard of of this there has to be some other factor on your phone. This isn't happening to everyone, or even large numbers of people. Perhaps it's specific to your region, or your service provider, or something like that. Worth trying and seeing whether it makes any difference (and if it doesn't work I'd try rebooting the phone before you conclude that's not it).
 
  • Like
Reactions: MrJavi and mikedt
Upvote 0
Have you checked your running devices under developer options? even tho I have told "go_ogle" I do NOT want to be tracked for c_19 in MY profile, I still end up finding exposure_matching in my running "go_ogle" srvcs!! (this always happens when/if my phone "dies"!!) no matter how diligent I TRY to be abt keeping my battery charged, I inevitably fail!! and have to go back in and stop abt 90% of those "srvcs"!!
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20201116-160945(1).png
    Screenshot_20201116-160945(1).png
    47.5 KB · Views: 196
  • Screenshot_20201116-160841(1).png
    Screenshot_20201116-160841(1).png
    71.5 KB · Views: 220
  • Screenshot_20201116-160806(1).png
    Screenshot_20201116-160806(1).png
    76.4 KB · Views: 215
Upvote 0
Unfortunately, this does occur each time a device is rebooted from off, and even sometimes with a simple reboot.

I have not found a way to prevent this, short of removing or disabling the offending apps.

There is a way to do it, even without root, via a computer- but I only know one person who has done so.

It simply ads/subtracts some code that prevents the apps from starting at startup or appearing in your app drawer.

I know that he found out how to do this from a video on YouTube, but I can't remember what it is called.

If you are interested (and maybe even if you are not, lol) I will ask him about it and get the info from him and post it here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MrJavi
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones