What is Samsung Push Service?

What is Samsung Push Service?

Samsung Push Service is the background service that carries notifications from Samsung's own apps and services to your Galaxy phone. Samsung's Play listing says it provides notifications only for Samsung services, naming the Galaxy Store, Samsung Pay and others, and that it shows them as pop-ups, app icon badges and entries in the notification bar.

It works like Google's push system does for other apps: instead of every Samsung app keeping its own connection open, one service stays connected to Samsung's servers and hands each app its messages. That saves battery compared with each app checking on its own.

You will not find it in the app drawer. It appears in Settings > Apps when system apps are shown, and Samsung also lists it on Google Play and the Galaxy Store so that it can be updated. Its package name is com.sec.spp.push, which is the string you will see in ADB lists and battery logs.

Can I disable it?

Yes, you can disable it, but notifications from Samsung's own apps may stop or arrive late, so it counts as an advanced change. Samsung's listing warns that if you delete it, you may not receive new notification messages. On many Galaxy phones Settings > Apps > Samsung Push Service offers Disable or Uninstall; where it does not, use ADB:

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.sec.spp.push

What you lose: notifications from Samsung services such as the Galaxy Store, Samsung Wallet or Samsung Pay, Samsung Members and other Samsung apps that rely on it. Apps from other companies, including WhatsApp, Gmail and your bank, are not affected, because they use Google's push system.

If what bothers you is promotional notifications, you do not need to disable the service. Turn off marketing notifications in each Samsung app instead, for example in the Galaxy Store's settings under notifications, or long-press a notification and switch that category off.

Does it drain battery or data?

No, not normally: it keeps one small, mostly idle connection open to Samsung's servers, and that costs very little battery or data. It shows up in battery lists because it is always running in the background, but its share is usually tiny.

If it does show heavy use, the usual causes are:

• A weak or unstable network, which makes it reconnect over and over.
• A problem with your Samsung account, such as an expired sign-in, which can make Samsung apps retry in a loop.
• A Samsung app that sends a steady stream of notifications.

Restarting the phone and signing back in to your Samsung account clears most of these.

Why did it just update?

It updated because Samsung delivers Samsung Push Service through the Galaxy Store and the Google Play Store, apart from One UI system updates. Updates change how the service connects to Samsung's servers, fix bugs and keep it in step with changes to Samsung's apps.

These updates are usually small and do not change anything you can see. If your Galaxy Store or Play Store is set to update apps automatically, they install in the background.

Which packages are behind it?

One package:

• com.sec.spp.push is Samsung Push Service.

The apps that receive its messages, such as the Galaxy Store (com.sec.android.app.samsungapps) and Samsung Members (com.samsung.android.voc), are separate packages. Disabling Samsung Push Service leaves those apps installed but without their push notifications.

If something goes wrong

If notifications from Samsung apps stop arriving, check that Samsung Push Service is enabled and up to date, then restart the phone. Open Settings > Apps, show system apps, choose Samsung Push Service and make sure it is not disabled and that its notifications are allowed. Then check for updates in the Galaxy Store.

If the service keeps showing "Samsung Push Service has stopped", clear its cache from the same App info screen under Storage, then restart. If that does not help, clear its storage too; the service sets itself up again the next time it connects.

Make sure you are signed in to your Samsung account in Settings, because several Samsung services only receive notifications for a signed-in account.

To restore it after disabling with ADB:

adb shell pm enable com.sec.spp.push
adb shell cmd package install-existing com.sec.spp.push