How to tell which application has pushed a notification Android allows notifications to be pushed and some times when we install certain applications, they push adverts to the notification bar. 

For example, this screen shot shows a notification icon that a download is in progress (and the notification is also shown in more detail when we expand the notification area).



My question is, how do we find out what posted any given notification. You can probably guess that I'm getting unwanted notifications (adverts/spam). 

The advice is usually start uninstalling apps, reset the OS etc and whilst I don't disagree that those methods don't work, they're not easy either. 

So, is it possible on stock Android 5 or higher to find out what application sent the notification?
Just long-press the notification. That should either directly lead to the corresponding app in Settings › Apps – or at least reveal a button to go there:


The ⓘ button brings you to the details, where you also can configure notifications for that app (Android 5.1 here)

AFAIR that feature was added somewhere around Kitkat (Android 4.4), but not before JellyBean (4.2), so it should definitely be available with Android 5 (Lollipop).