Why it matters: Samsung is doing away with obnoxious ads baked into some of the default apps that ship on its Galaxy smartphones. The full extent of the changes aren't yet known, but it does seem to be a step in the right direction that'll help clean up the company's mobile UI.
Yonhap News was first to report on the matter, which has since been confirmed by Samsung. According to the publication, Samsung smartphone boss TM Roh made the announcement during a recent internal town hall meeting. Roh replaced DJ Koh as Samsung's mobile chief in early 2020.
In a statement issued to The Verge, a Samsung rep confirmed they have decided to cease advertisement on select proprietary apps including Samsung Pay, Samsung Weather and Samsung Theme. The changes are being coded now and will be ready to deploy later this year.
“Our priority is to deliver innovative mobile experiences for our consumers based on their needs and wants,” the rep said. “We value feedback from our users and continue our commitment to provide them with the best possible experience from our Galaxy products and services.”
Samsung has come under fire recently for its inclusion of ads in its default apps. In The Verge’s review of the Galaxy S21 Ultra, the publication blasted Samsung for utilizing “the kind of ad[s] … normally at the bottom of a crappy, overloaded website.”
Interestingly enough, the three apps that Samsung mentioned by name don’t represent the full list of stock apps that utilize the offending ads. As 9to5Google highlights, Samsung Health is another prominent example.
It’s unclear if Samsung is removing ads from all of its stock apps or only the three it specifically called out. We also don't have a specific date as to when the changes will start rolling out to end users.
https://www.techspot.com/news/90844-samsung-remove-ads-stock-smartphone-apps-later-year.html
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