The Google Play Store is the hub for all the applications that an Android user might need, these range from games, productivity applications, timers with themes and a whole basket of weather applications with one feature being common and that is ‘in-app ads’.

Ads, as we know, have come to become a major source of income for a lot of different organisations on the internet. They are found almost everywhere. Right from websites like YouTube that host videos for streaming to your favourite news website or even a meme website — they all host ads and these have now also found a way into our smartphones via apps – sometimes in a very intrusive manner.

What are pop up ads?

Pop Up Ads are one of the intrusive ways to show ads. They originated from Tripod.com (a webpage hosting site in the late 1990s). They were brought around by Ethan Zuckerman who wrote code to launch ads in a separate window as he wanted to solve the issue of displaced banners.

These are basically an entity which suddenly pops up in the user’s workspace. These have now grown to include redirections and fake close buttons which can lead to downloading of malware by accidental/forced clicks.

Also read: 5 ways to detect and avoid fake/dangerous apps on Google Play Store

Google’s efforts towards prevention of permission abuse

With Google handing over permission settings to users, the situations where an application may be performing behind the scene operations has greatly reduced but some applications still force certain permissions onto a user.

The Permissions section in your Settings application can help you see which permissions have been given to the applications installed on your phone and this can help you find out and stop apps from displaying ads.

How to spot and remove applications displaying pop-up Ads

To find out which application is displaying the ad is to press the Recent (□) button when an ad shows up as this will show you the application which has brought the pop up along with it. One of the apps that are running in the background is the culprit in this situation. Find out which one it is and either delete or revoke its permissions.

Revoke permission to draw over other apps

One setting that can lead to pop-ups appearing during the day to day usage is the permission to ‘draw over other applications’. If this permission is disabled the application which draws an ad onto your screen can no longer perform that action.

Use apps such as AdBlock to mitigate pop-ups

If the above-mentioned solutions do not help you with the situation at hand, applications like ‘AdBlock Plus’ help identify from where the ads originate.

If your device is rooted you can use AdAway, which is an open-source application which can work in conjunction with AdBlocker Reborn and act as the most comprehensive way to prevent pop-ups.

Also read: 8 ways to block ads on Android smartphones