How to manage app notifications in Android Marshmallow?

Table of Contents [hide]
1) What can you do for app notifications in Android Marshmallow?
2) How to use Application manager to manage app notifications in Android Marshmallow?
3) How to use notification manager to manage app notifications in Android Marshmallow?
4) How to customize lock screen app notifications in Android Marshmallow?
5) How to identify which app is pushing spamming notifications?

What can you do for app notifications in Android Marshmallow?

Android Marshmallow offers granular controls for app notifications. You can customize app notifications in Android Marshmallow to meet your needs easily.

If you are not happy with the default app notification settings (for example, some spamming  notifications annoy you) , you can customize app notifications in Android Marshmallow

In Android Marshmallow, you can use Do not Disturb to adjust the interruptions and app notifications.

For app notifications in Android Marshmallow, you can:

  • Block notifications from individual apps.
  • Set notifications from individual app as priority so that the said app can send you notifications when you are in priority mode.
  • Hide notification on lock screen.
  • Hide sensitive notification on lock screen.
  • Hide notification of individual app from lock screen.
  • Hide sensitive notification of individual apps on lock screen.
  • Allow individual apps to pop out notifications over app screen you are using.

This guide will show you how to manage and customize app notifications in Android Marshmallow in two different ways:

  • using application manager.
  • using notification settings.

Both of them work in an identical way.  Android Marshmallow offers these two options just for your conveniences.

How to use Application manager to manage app notifications in Android Marshmallow?

You can use application manager to manage apps installed on the phone.  In this guide, I showed you how to use application manager to manage app permissions in Android Marshmallow.

You can also use application manager to manage and customize app notifications as well.

As shown below, go to Settings, tap Apps to access  application manager in your phone. In some Android phones, some vendors may call it Applications or Application manager under settings.

In this guide, let’s suppose you want to manage app notifications for Google Fit app.

In Apps page, tap Google Fit as shown below.

As shown above, in app info page for Google Fit app, you can tap Notifications.

Then you are directed to the app notification page for this app as shown above.

In vanilla Android (e.g., Nexus devices, Moto G, Moto X and Moto E…), you can find at least 4 options of app notification for any individual apps:

  • Block all. If this is enabled, this app will not be able to send any notifications to the notification panel. Please note, this does not affect the functionality of the app. If the app has its own notification inbox inside the app, you can still check notifications there.
  • Treat as priority. When Do not Disturb (DnD) is activated, and the phone is in Priority only mode, this app can still show notifications. In this way, you can let important apps/notifications interrupt you when Do not Disturb is active.
  • Allow peeking. Some apps may want to show certain important notifications as pop up notification or head-up notification when you are using other apps.  If the app is abusing this feature with annoying pop out notifications, you can disable this Allow peeking feature for the app. Please note, this does not control pop-ups when you are using the said app.
  • Hide sensitive content. You can hide private information in the notification from this app when phone screen is locked.  Of course, you can customize app notifications for all apps on lock screen as well (read on).

Some Android manufacturers may customize the option list by renaming them and/or adding a few more options.

But these 4 options mentioned above should be always available regardless of any OEM customization.

How to use notification manager to manage app notifications in Android Marshmallow?

Another way to manage app notifications in Android Marshmallow is through Settings— Sound and notification as shown below.

In Sound and notification page, tap App notifications (marked as 1 in the screenshot below).

In App notifications pages, the apps are listed with app notification settings status as shown below.

“Normal”status means default setting.

Tap Google Fit to get the identical app notification page as shown above.

So essentially, using application manager or using sound & notifications settings, the app notification settings are linked to an identical page.

Although it sounds one of them is redundant,  actually these two options are offered from two different perspectives: once from individual apps, the other from the overview of the app notification settings.

How to customize lock screen app notifications in Android Marshmallow?

When the phone is locked, for security and privacy reasons, you may want to hide some sensitive info (because your phone may be in bad hands).

For example, most banks use 2-factor verification by sending a temp code to you through SMS.  You may want to hide such info, or hide such notifications when phone screen is locked.

In Android Marshmallow, you can easily customize lock screen app notifications.

In Settings— Sound & notification page, you can tap When device is locked as shown above (marked as 2 in the screenshot above).

Then you can find the 3 options for lock screen app notifications in Android Marshmallow as shown above:

  • Show all notification content. This is the default setting. All allowed notifications will be shown on the lock screen.
  • Hide sensitive notification content. Notifications with sensitive contents will not be shown in the lock screen.
  • Don’t show notification at all. None of the notifications will be shown on the lock screen.

Please note, these 3 options are global settings. They work together with individual app notification settings.  The result is the combined (AND operator) of the two settings (individual app + global settings).

For example, if you set Don’t show notification at all, then individual app settings do not matter at all.

But if you set Show all notification content,  then notifications will still not be shown on locks screen if the app notification is blocked.

How to identify which app is pushing spamming notifications?

Sometimes, you may get some spamming notifications from some apps, especially some free games. But you are not sure about the culprit.

You can tap and hold (aka long press) the corresponding notification as shown below.

Then tap the “i” button as shown below.

You will then be directed to the corresponding app notification page.

In this example, you will get identical Google Fit app notification page shown before.

You can then easily block notifications or customize notifications for this app.

Can you manage app notifications in Android Marshmallow? Do you know how to customize app notifications in lock screen in Android Marshmallow?

If you have any questions or encounter any problems on managing/customizing app notifications in Android Marshmallow, customizing app notifications on the lock screen, or identifying apps that pushing spamming notifications, please let us know them in the comment box below.

The community will help you.

For any questions or problems with Android Marshmallow, please check our Android Marshmallow Guide page.

If your question is about Android Lollipop, please check out Android Lollipop Guide page.

For other Android guides, please check our Android 101 page.

View Comments

  • Wanted to know can we enable time duration of notifications I, e continuesly popping up till we check it.
    like led blinking.

    • Samsung phones has this feature called notification reminder under accessibility seatings. It's not a feature of Android. But for other phones, you can use some apps to achieve it.

  • I have recently moved from IOS to Android. I'm using sony xperia Z5. Although all my settings are as you mentioned enable and optimized. I don't get the LOCK screen notification. Although the LED blinks and I get the notification sound, however, every time i get a notification I have to wake up the screen to see what is the notification and where is it coming from which is very annoying. In IOS this works very smoothly and I never encountered any issue.

    P.S: I already operated the phone in safe mode and did the software repair but it did not help. When I use a third party app it does works as required however I don't want to use a thirdparty app for this.

    • You can enable notification in lock screen in Settings - Sound & notification - When device is locked. You can choose one of the three options: show all notification content, hide sensitive content, or don't show notifications.

      You can even set it for individual apps.

  • I had a note 7 (2 actually) and ended up with an s7 edge since they banned the note 7 on planes. On the lock screen of the s7 I get notification bars with "content hidden" on them. I don't want to see the bar at all. I want to be able to tap the button on my phone and see the little app icons under the date and time. I don't want the bars. I was able to do this on the note 7 but can't figure out on s7. Any ideas?

    Thanks
    Jeff

  • Is there a way to manage each of the notifications of a particular app? Like, to allow some, but not others? I don't want to stop all of the notifications from this app, just a couple.

    • You can enable or disable notifications from individual apps. But how can you control individual notifications?

      If I misunderstood your question, please elaborate with details. You can also give an example and let us know what you want to achieve.

  • Is there any way to block just SOUND notifications from an app? For example, I don't mind getting pop-up notifications from Amazon, but I don't want to hear a "ping" when that happens. But I do want to hear a sound notification for notification from some other apps, so I don't want to turn off sound notifications altogether. On my iPad, you can control visual and sound notifications separately...is there any way to do that in Android Marshmallow? (If it helps, my device is a Moto G4 Play.)

    I don't know whether anyone is still reading this thread (since it's a bit old now), but, if anyone can help me, I'd very much appreciate it! :)

    • unfortunately, you cannot because Amazon app doesn't implementIn the notification sound option. In Android, it's up to app developers to use different notification sound (including silent). Many apps have this setting. But amazon didn't implement this and therefore default notification will new used when notification is enabled.

  • I'm not able to dismiss notifications on the lock screen on LG G4. Galaxy S5 would allow you to swipe them left or right to dismiss them without having to unlock the screen first. Is this a Marshmallow issue, or LG issue?

    • it is not a problem of Marshmallow, not a problem of LG.

      In LG phones, you need swipe to left side (or right ) to dismiss the notification in the lock screen.

  • Hi
    I have Samsung C7.I want only get the notification sound, however, every time i received a new text ,screen is wake up. I dont want to wake up the screen. Just sound is enough for me.

    kindlytell me , what to do , i tried all but there is no any option to stop this.

    • I don't think there are any settings for this. The screen should wake up only very briefly.

      However, you can keep the screen off when it is in your pocket or in a bag in Settings-- Display--keep screen turned off.

  • I have coolpad mega 2.5 d with marshmallow and i already set All allowed notifications will be shown on the lock screen. but the problem is when i received notification handset not showing any popup screen in mobile every time i used lock key and check lock screen notification

    Not showing any awake gesture in my mobile

    Pls guide and help for this

    • There is no pop up screen in lock screen. Only the excerpt of the notification (not full notification) should be shown in lock screen.

  • I have Alcatel POP 4 android 6.0 and I want to know how to customize notification bar on the stock lock screen to be transparent? Is it possible? Thank you.

    • Are you referring to status bar in the top of the screen? It is always transparent. You can change wallpaper to see the effects.

      If you are referring to quick settings panel or notification shade, no, you cannot make it transparent. Any reasons for this?

  • I have Redmi 4 phone and I was wondering what settings need to be changed to allow me to access application directly by tapping its notification on the lock screen? Currently this works only for certain system applications. For example I receive notification from Whatsup but when I tap it it takes me to my home screen and doesn't open Whatsup. I need to tap it one more time to start the aplication.

    Where can I set it so that tapping the notification directly opens corresponding application?
    Thanks

  • please, help me.
    I have Infinix Zero 4 plus phone I receive notifications from whats app and facebook messenger only.
    I don't receive any notifications from facebook when anybody tag me or add a comment or anything ,clash of clans ,email ,gmail ,telegram ,I don't receive any notifications from any application except whats app and facebook messenger please help me with settings that I can do in my phone or installing applications for notifications .

    • did you disable notifications from these apps?

      did you check notification settings inside each app?

  • Hi i have Xiaomi redmi note 4X i have problem
    when i get message from my friends in messenger i read only the last message and and a number off unread message from them
    i want to click in notification and swipe down to read at least last 5
    also for Gmail i have this ( You have 5 Email ) i want to swipe down to read titles
    (i used a lot a phone have kitkat so this features was on and can read without enter in apps)
    please if you have any idea how to fix it thanks by advance.

    • It depends on manufacturer's implementation prior to Android Nougat. Only in Android Nougat, bundled notification is enforced.

  • Hello, Simon. I’m using a local, unpopular stock Android phone with 6.0 Marshmallow and there’s this very specific ‘Phone Assist’ which updates system apps and it doesn’t seem to allow blocking notifications at all? There are only three options that shows on the notification options page for this app:

    Treat as priority.
    Allow peeking.
    Hide sensitive content.

    There is no option for ‘Block all’ notifications. This has been really troubling me for the past few weeks. Is there any way I could circumvent this? I should also mention that there’s no way to ‘Disable’ this system app either, the button’s been greyed out. Also, I really appreciate you responding to the comments for over an year now. It’s really satisfying to find some answers in the comments themselves.

    Here are some screenshots:
    https://i.imgur.com/Wy1LOUQ.png
    https://i.imgur.com/AYUYuK9.png

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