Help Random app icons appearing on my homescreen

[androidgirl20]

For some reason these tiny icons for apps I've never downloaded frequently appear on my Nexus 7 homescreen. For example, I would exit out of an app I have downloaded and Candy Crush Saga shows up at the top for no reason.

This is a fairly minor issue, but I'm willing to bet it's a 4.2 bug since I don't have this issue on my Droid DNA.

My N7 is completely stock (not rooted).

 

[wheresmybeans]

I exactly the same thing, but presumably it's some forms of marketing that get bundled with the free apps on playstore. I have no evidence for this, just seems logical to me.

 

[the_colombian]

You have an app that is installing other apps. Download air push detector to find what app it is and uninstall it.

 

[argedion]

I use Addons Detector and it helps me to remove stuff like that.

 

[John Bean]

As has already been stated, something (presumably an app) is "pushing" other things to your tablet without your knowledge or consent.

Fortunately the Android system will by default always create a homescreen icon for any pushed apps to prevent this bad behaviour from being completely hidden from the user. The ability to push apps is handy - I almost always use the Play Store on a PC to install apps for example - but it's very bad behaviour if something does it without your approval. Best advice has already been given: find the culprit and remove it.

Don't be so quick to blame the Android OS for providing a useful feature that is being misused by some cowboy app developer somewhere.

 

[Harry2]

Jelly Bean introduced the feature to indentify the app which pushed a notification and disable the app's ability for notifications.

Do long press on the advertising's notification, that should pop up an "App Info" button you can press which will tell you which app has created that notification.
Also from there you can conveniently disable the app's ability for notifications, or if you want, uninstall the app.

Harry