If you have a smartphone from a Chinese OEM, you will know what the ads in the Android skins and pre-installed apps look like. Xiaomi is famous for filling advertisements in MIUI. Realme calls them “commercial content recommendations.” Even Oppo contains ads in Color OS. However, Chinese mobile phone manufacturers are not the only companies that place ads in Android skins and pre-installed apps as part of their business model. Samsung is also notorious for the apps in its default apps. However, the company recently decided to stop the practice of proprietary apps including Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay and Samsung Themes.
Although advertisements can be annoying, they allow smartphone vendors to offer devices at more affordable prices. This is definitely something that consumers can benefit from, even if it means seeing some ads in bargains. Many OEMs also allow users to completely disable advertising. Therefore, we would like to ask you, our readers, what do you think about the ads on Android skins and pre-installed apps. Here is how you voted in our polls and how you feel about your own experience.
What do you think of ads in Android skins and pre-installed apps?
result
The pie chart above shows that our readers are very aware of the feelings that ads on Android skins and pre-loaded apps bring to them. In short, they hate them.
Of the nearly 2,000 voters who responded to our poll, 85% said they despise ads on mobile phones. 13% of people voted that they can place ads on Android skins and pre-loaded apps, as long as it means paying less for their phones.
related: How to use MIUI to remove ads on Xiaomi phones
Only 2% of voters can see ads on their devices.
What you have to say
Easy care: No ads. period. My phone is not free, they can put their ads elsewhere.
Joey Isham: If they want to load a bunch of ads, then the product should be free. In addition, many advertisements cannot be interrupted or stopped. In my opinion, this should not be allowed because you cannot call 911 when you need to play stupid advertisements.
LCD 1701: When you pay a lot of money for your smartphone, the ads imposed on you are worse than the free/IAP apps in the Play Store. After S4, I stopped using Samsung because of its bloated and unkillable apps unless it is rooted and it is really an insult that they are now stuffed with ads on your already overpaid phone. After S4, my device is Nexus 6P, Essential (RIP), and now it is Pixels-first 3a and now 4a. This is why the stock Android will never be overvalued.
Irvan: I can advertise on low-end devices instead of on the $1,000 flagship product.
Job Splik: I paid a lot of money for Samsung’s top mobile phones. They don’t need to earn more dollars by advertising. I read somewhere that they will stop this practice due to strong opposition from customers. Hope this is true.
Wang Watt: Anyway, ads are everywhere, but that doesn’t mean I have to endure embedding them in the devices I spend money to buy.
Albin: no way. But I am curious whether the system-level ad blocker that I use to eliminate application pop-ups and cartoon boxes also applies to these ads.
cliff: Unless they really like Amazon and their Kindle “This is ad-supported” for users to choose a non-ad version, I don’t think they should be there. Only the end user can choose to use or not to use, this is acceptable.
notebook: It is forbidden to place ads on flagships or any expensive mobile phones. On low-end mobile phones or cheap mobile phones, if the advertisement is not intrusive or does not affect the normal use of the mobile phone, it is acceptable.
Jeff Nancy: I am not so desperate financially that I am willing to accept advertisements to reduce the price of mobile phones.
CR45H 0V3RR1D3: 3 factors. 1: You can afford it. 2: What kind of compromise are you willing to make. And 3: BL can be unlocked. If money is not an issue, then buying the device directly from the OEM can avoid additional carrier inflation (Pixel is naturally the best). It also usually guarantees that BL can be unlocked, which will open up other ways to delete bloat/advertising through custom ROM, root, ADB, etc. Then, your wallet 2 will come in handy. What bloat/advertising are you willing to put up with in order to get what you might not have? It’s like watching a show in tubi, pluto, peacock or many other streaming apps that offer free movies/TV, as long as you watch some ads. The mentality is the same. Finally, it is obvious that if BL can be unlocked, it will naturally be easier to compromise.