It’s not just HTC: Samsung also pushes ‘notification ads’ to its customers

By Williams Pelegrin Updated August 21, 2015

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge top angle — Giuliano Correia/Digital Trends

At this point, consumers are probably used to seeing notification advertisements from various applications, or ads that show up as a notification. Unfortunately, when a phone manufacturer does it, it becomes a far more troubling practice. Unfortunately, with HTC and now Samsung doing it, this might be a trend that won’t die down soon, reports Android Police.

The outlet reported receiving a notification ad from Samsung through the company’s Push Service, which is supposed to provide notification support for apps like Samsung Pay and Samsung Link, among many others. This particular notification ad was for a show on Bravo, with the ad “sponsored by Land Rover.” When pressed, the ad would let you set a reminder through the Peel app, which is part of the stock Galaxy S6 software package.

However, this wasn’t the end of Samsung’s notification ads, as another ad was screen-captured by a German user. This particular ad was for the Galaxy S6 Plus, which was announced during Samsung’s most recent Unpacked event. Tapping the ad would take you to Samsung’s German Galaxy S6 Edge Plus’ listing website, making it more of an ad than the aforementioned notification ad.

More interestingly is how the second ad was also pushed to customers through the same Push Service, meaning Samsung could have tweaked the service to allow the company to push ads to its customers. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a phone manufacturer push ads to its customers, unfortunately, as HTC was also caught red-handed pushing an ad to its customers for this year’s Fantastic Four movie.

This is a troubling practice for those who believe we are already overexposed to ads, as well as to those who believe we should have complete control of our phones, yet it’s a practice that we will hear more of in the future.

Topics

Williams Pelegrin

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…

Mobile

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 3 is adding an S Pen, replacing this year’s Galaxy Note

Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Note 20 S Pen.

Samsung's Unpacked event on August 11 is going to be a doozy. President of Mobile Communications, TM Roh, just dropped a ton of new information about what we can expect from the announcement. In news that will shock precisely nobody, he confirmed that Samsung will unveil new foldables at the event -- but it's the details that have us intrigued.

Roh first makes it clear that this next generation, expected to be the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, will be "armed with more durable, stronger materials." That's critical to the widespread adoption of foldables, which have made strides but are still inarguably more fragile than non-folding phones. But that strength matters in a very specific area for Samsung: It will be announcing a new S Pen specifically for foldables. It'll likely be different from the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra's, which could damage current foldable display coverings unless Samsung also unveils dramatically stronger "Ultra Thin Glass." The question is whether this will also lead to shortcomings in features like pressure sensitivity, tracking, and accuracy.

Wearables

Together, Google and Samsung just may have a chance to beat the Apple Watch

Sameer Samat - google x samsung

At this moment in time, Apple owns the smartwatch space, and the Apple Watch’s status as the world’s bestselling watch is well-deserved. Google, on the other hand, has let Wear OS stagnate over the years, and while the dedicated companies that use Wear OS keep making great hardware, the software usually feels substandard.

Samsung makes the only true competitor to the Apple Watch. The Galaxy Watch 3’s fluid, well-designed Tizen software and innovative control system make it a winner, but it lacks Google apps and services. Neither Google nor Samsung can beat Apple on their own, but perhaps together they can?

Mobile

Is the Galaxy Note 21 canceled? Samsung suggests it’s possible

Common Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra problems and how to fix them.

Samsung might be skipping the Galaxy Note line for this year, forgoing a Galaxy Note 21, the company admitted at a shareholder meeting.

In comments shared by the Verge, Samsung co-CEO DJ Koh said: “[The] Note series is positioned as a high-end model in our business portfolio. It could be a burden to unveil two flagship models in a year, so it might be difficult to release [a] Note model in 2H. The timing of [the] Note model launch can be changed, but we seek to release a Note model next year.”