Ads on phones, big deal?

[chanchan05]

Don't have ads on my phone or tablet, apps I use don't contain them and I've never seen Samsung put them in the device themselves.

The only ads I see from Samsung are from the My Samsung app, but they are hardly ads as they are notifications of sales and discounts from nearby partner stores.

 

[Mooncatt]

What HTC has done was an update programming error, and was not supposed to be intentional. It's an error on the part of the keyboard dev, who is not part of HTC but rather just some dev HTC contracted to provide their keyboards. For non HTC phones, his keyboard can be downloaded for free (with ads) or bought off the Play Store.

Re-read my first post, I'm not referring to the keyboard mistake. I'm referring to this, which is intentional.

https://www.yelpblog.com/2015/05/yelps-on-lock-the-new-htc-one-lock-screen-that-is

 

[chanchan05]

Re-read my first post, I'm not referring to the keyboard mistake. I'm referring to this, which is intentional.

https://www.yelpblog.com/2015/05/yelps-on-lock-the-new-htc-one-lock-screen-that-is

Is there no opt out? Granted I installed something that does that exact same thing if I let it (its in the options), so I don't have strong feelings against getting a list of suggestions on where to eat lunch.

 

[Mooncatt]

Is there no opt out? Granted I installed something that does that exact same thing if I let it (its in the options), so I don't have strong feelings against getting a list of suggestions on where to eat lunch.

I think there is an option to opt-out, but thankfully HTC sent updates to system apps like the lock screen via the Play store. I saw the junk reviews and never took the update to find out.

Opt-out or not, it's still the principle that I paid full price for their phone with no expectation of ads, and they tried to intentionally push them on me via their OEM stock software. They didn't give any heads up that they were starting, and only addressed it and the ability to opt-out after customer complaints.

 

[Almeuit]

Re-read my first post, I'm not referring to the keyboard mistake. I'm referring to this, which is intentional.

https://www.yelpblog.com/2015/05/yelps-on-lock-the-new-htc-one-lock-screen-that-is

Wow

 

[chanchan05]

I think there is an option to opt-out, but thankfully HTC sent updates to system apps like the lock screen via the Play store. I saw the junk reviews and never took the update to find out.

Opt-out or not, it's still the principle that I paid full price for their phone with no expectation of ads, and they tried to intentionally push them on me via their OEM stock software. They didn't give any heads up that they were starting, and only addressed it and the ability to opt-out after customer complaints.

Personally I'm not sure that's exactly an ad, as the phone is just suggesting stuff based on your location. It's a common feature on some social networks. But the way it takes over the lockscreen instead of just a notification is bothering.

 

[Mooncatt]

Personally I'm not sure that's exactly an ad, as the phone is just suggesting stuff based on your location. It's a common feature on some social networks. But the way it takes over the lockscreen instead of just a notification is bothering.

How is unsolicited information trying to influence my purchases (restaurants in this case) not advertising?

Calling a suggestion is like calling those ads at the top and bottom of Google searches based on my search terms "just a suggestion."

 

[chanchan05]

How is unsolicited information trying to influence my purchases (restaurants in this case) not advertising?

Calling a suggestion is like calling those ads at the top and bottom of Google searches based on my search terms "just a suggestion."

Because apparently there is an opt out, and suggestions on where to eat based on location is actually the whole point of existence of some apps, but they aren't necessarily advertising the place because the place wasn't necessarily paying them to show them, and instead is picked due to reviews. Like some restaurant review social media apps.

It could have been a nice additional feature if it wasn't on by default and was openly explained. As I said, I installed a similar app for my country that does exactly that: give me suggestions based on my location and reviews of the place.

Samsung has something similar too, granted they did a better way of handling it. You have to download their app (My Samsung/Samsung Lifestyle), login to it with a Samsung account, and specify what suggestions you want to see (sales, discounts, etc) based on partner stores, before it even thinks of giving you suggestions, and it's just a notification on the dropdown at that.

 

[Mooncatt]

Because apparently there is an opt out...

And that's one of the biggest sticking issue. These sorts of things should be opt-in, not opt-out. If they were so good, companies would make it an opt-in service knowing people would sign up for it. By making it opt-out, they know many people simply won't do so because they are lazy or even realize they can. Like you said, people can download similar apps on their own, which is how it should be.

As to the point of the places not paying for the ad placement, that doesn't matter to me as the phone purchaser. I bought a phone without those ads, and they were later added and activated without my consent. How, or if they were paid for makes no difference.

 

[chanchan05]

And that's one of the biggest sticking issue. These sorts of things should be opt-in, not opt-out. If they were so good, companies would make it an opt-in service knowing people would sign up for it. By making it opt-out, they know many people simply won't do so because they are lazy or even realize they can. Like you said, people can download similar apps on their own, which is how it should be.

As to the point of the places not paying for the ad placement, that doesn't matter to me as the phone purchaser. I bought a phone without those ads, and they were later added and activated without my consent. How, or if they were paid for makes no difference.

Matter of semantics for us then.

Personally though, with how HTC is failing financially, we may expect more of the same.

 

[Mooncatt]

Matter of semantics for us then.

Personally though, with how HTC is failing financially, we may expect more of the same.

I haven't paid much attention to them lately, so taking you at your word it's a fair point.

 

[ByteMyAscii]

I don't have a problem with the advertising as a concept. Someone has to pay for the app development and other stuff.

My complaint is about the kind of ads: large or animated or flashing or misleading text.
When I get these ads, I will go out of my way to mark them as "don't show it to me again due to it being inappropriate".

This is an argument I make regularly about adblocking extensions in browsers, that the medium of the ads is the problem, and not that they exist.
But instead of actually fixing that, we get content put behind paywalls and they blame us for "forcing" that outcome.

I don't mind ads, but you are mistaken in saying that flagship phones aren't supposed to show ads. It's the app devs that make your phone show ads, not the phone manufacturer, so whather or not you are using a flagship or not shouldn't matter. Pay for the ad free version of the ads if you don't want it. I honestly do not really believe in Ad Blockers as won't it reduce earnings for the app dev?

My reason for using adblockers is to get a better experience.
What they described is the behaviour of ads which prompted them to block.
And that is why I block ads, how they behave.

If they want ads, listen to the users instead of the ad providers and creators.
An ad should in a quick and straightforward fashion tell me what the product is.
If I have to wait through any sort of media then it is failing to do that.
Excessive use of battery, of data.
if I want to interact with an ad, it should be my choice and not one the ad chooses for me.

 

[Aquila]

All ads in this context should be OFF by default with an option available for the user to opt in to viewing ads.

 

[Mooncatt]

So a little poll.

Am I the only one that has dealt with ads so long that I now have a conditioned reflex to press anything with an "X" on it?

 

[Aquila]

So a little poll.

Am I the only one that has dealt with ads so long that I now have a conditioned reflex to press anything with an "X" on it?

I'm definitely not in that camp; I block almost all ads with multiple methods because most ads are a potential gateway for malware and most sites running the worst ads are also collecting and passing on user-data for resale. It's a completely unacceptable situation. On mobile, 90%+ of the time the first time I see an ad in an app, I uninstall the app. I'd rather pay for the app up front or do a subscription than see ads.

 

[Mooncatt]

Well to be honest, I have recently arrested using Adguard because a site I frequent occasionally gets those auto-redirect ads or whatever. Though I'm not sure yet how effective it is being and may need some fine tuning.

 

[Doug Moffat]

I use Adguard Pro as well. It's not for blocking ads on free apps that have paid upgrades to remove ads, it's for apps such as news apps (CNN, CBS, local news apps, etc) that don't offer any paid upgrades to remove ads. If a Dev offers a paid version of an app to remove ads I buy it, but these big corporations don't offer paid ad-free apps.

I'm with you. Would gladly pay to avoid ads and web sites based upon the frequency of my usage.

 

[LeoRex]

OK... My opinion on ads is conditional...

First, the whole Amazon.com phone discount with the ads on the lockscreen.. I am totally OK with that. Why? It's all up front and disclosed. Amazon is saying "You can save $XX if you accept ads on your lockscreen". Fine... you tell people upfront about it, they can make the choice.

Ads on web pages... Sites gotta pay bills like everyone else, so I am OK with Ads.. BUT... I am not OK with the brutally obtrusive ads that slide into your screen, pop some silly 'you have been infected' nonsense or bog the phone down because it is rendering dynamic content that uses 100 time the data than the actual page. Die in a fire. I'll whitelist a site in any and all ad blockers if they stick to nice, behaving banner ads like in the old days. But the instant one starts throwing that swill at my screen, you won't get any ad revenue from me.

And lastly, something that 'just shows up', like if the OEM threw an ad from Yelp on my lockscreen (like is hinted in that article).. If the OEM of the phone I was using did that, nu-uh... no way, sorry. Go pound sand. I've already shelled out several hundred clams for that phone, you aren't going to try to exploit me to get a few pennies of ad revenue here or there without a damn good return (like a dirt cheap/free upgrade program). But that won't happen since they'd probably lose money on that deal.

 

[Morty2264]

I don't really go out of my way to avoid them. Some apps like Zedge and my EMUI Theme Editor app do have ads. I mostly just shrug them off, close them, and off I go. I suppose it would also depend on the frequency of such ads popping up.

 

[LeoRex]

I don't really go out of my way to avoid them. Some apps like Zedge and my EMUI Theme Editor app do have ads. I mostly just shrug them off, close them, and off I go. I suppose it would also depend on the frequency of such ads popping up.

Well, that's the key... Zedge, for instance... it's a free download from the Play Store and you can get a ton of stuff from it; wallpapers, ringtones, notification sounds, etc. But you have to deal with an ad or two now and then. And the ads aren't mind-crushingly intrusive or misleading. Quid pro quo... I get free stuff, app service gets ad revenue. We both benefit from the arrangement.

But something like this, slapping an ad out of the blue on the lockscreen? What possible benefit does this give the user? Zero... they have to deal with some lame Yelp content to get into a phone you most likely paid a significant amount of money for already. It serves only one purpose; so HTC can squeeze some extra revenue from your usage.