Thread

Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy

822 points · 601 comments · MC995

AnonC · 1790088825 · focus · HN ↗
I doubt John Ternus will change direction anytime soon, since it will look like he’s reversing the plethora of eyesore ads that Tim Cook added over his tenure.
But the Apple with ads is not the Apple that had some taste and discernment in the past. For a long time I’ve visited the App Store’s app update page directly (tap and hold on App Store icon to see the context menu option). Anytime I inadvertently go to the App Store home page or the few times I search, it’s an ad filled disaster!
From this article
> repeatedly attempting to prod customers towards even more of the company’s products might seem cheap, even distasteful.
From a recent post by John Gruber:
> Steve Jobs in 2011: 'We Build Products That We Want for Ourselves, Too, and We Just Don't Want Ads' [1]
Looks like Tim Cook, John Ternus and Eddy Cue really enjoy being swamped with ads in their products. Will there soon be a time when Apple executives start carrying some other brand’s devices with them to avoid having a rotten experience?
[1]: We don’t want ads <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/07/28/jobs-we-dont-want-ads" rel="nofollow">https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/07/28/jobs-we-dont-wa...
1. api · 1790088911 · focus · HN ↗
  Ad revenue is bad revenue if you're going for the high end of the market. If it has ads, it's crap.
  Apple has all but conquered the high end of the market, but that ad revenue... it's so tempting... soooo tempting... just one hit...
  1. malfist · 1790089693 · focus · HN ↗
    What are you going to do? Switch to android which has even more ads?
    What we need is antitrust enforcement so there are other options and more competition. The free market can't fix anything if the market is just a race to the bottom between two companies
    wredcoll · 1790094870 · focus · HN ↗
    What ads does android have? I see ads when I'm inside specific apps, youtube, chrome, etc, but not when I'm using apps that don't have ads?
    pfg_ · 1790112011 · focus · HN ↗
    When I first switched to Android, I was shocked to see Google's Photos app send me an ad for buying printed printed framed photos. After turning that off, I haven't noticed many ads.
    wredcoll · 1790115906 · focus · HN ↗
    Huh, I wonder if there's some I've just grown so used to they're a blindspot. I don't use google photos though...
    netsharc · 1790115812 · focus · HN ↗
    Google Photos is always trying to upsell storage beyond 15GB: "(you're going to lose your pictures), turn on backup?". Even pressing the "Search" button got me that prompt once, with some blah blah that AI-assisted search only works when the photos are on the cloud...
    amennox · 1790835292 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
    tjpnz · 1790157495 · focus · HN ↗
    The Play Store landing page is packed full of them - mostly scams.

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