Push notifications on your phone can be great. They can alert you to different things going on within your apps, such as new email and new messages, but they can also send you advertisements from an app to entice you to visit.
But what happens when it’s your phone manufacturer that is sending you those ads? That was precisely the problem for Galaxy S8 users. Samsung has been sending them ads via push notifications from a preinstalled app. We asked our writers, “Should phone manufacturers be allowed to send ads via push notifications?”
Our Opinion
Simon calls this “quite a dirty trick” and a “nefarious tactic.” He believes that if phone manufacturers wants to advertise on their devices, they should “provide an easy and obvious way to disable” it. He also thinks that combining the advertising with the method people use to be alerted to important emails, messages, and calls will “do more harm than good.” He considers the practice “double dipping.” Fabio agrees that it’s going too far
Trevor thinks the practice “would open the door for more and more marketing” and “analytics being used because we’d have to grant more permissions.” Additionally, he doesn’t care “what the manufacturer has to say or who their third party partner is.”
Alex that he already gets “far too many notifications from apps that I actually want to use, and the last thing I need is garbage making my phone buzz every few minutes.” Additionally, he says phone manufacturers have so many platforms for advertising on mobile devices as it is, that “we don’t need to enable system-level advertising for developers and third parties.”
Jeffry says ” ‘Doing Business 101’ taught us that the first thing we need to do to build a lasting and profitable business is to get loyal customers and keep them loyal for as long as possible.” He wonders if the executives at Samsung, as well as others who believe this practice is okay, skipped that entry level class as what they were doing “will surely anger the once loyal customers and turn them into haters.”
I, of course, side with everyone else in this matter. It’s not okay. If Apple started doing that to me, I’d be really irritated and upset. Luckily I can turn off all or individual notifications on my iPhone, but if I couldn’t do that for Apple adds, I’d be really flustered.
Your Opinion
All our writers certainly agreed, do you as well? Do you think this is a terrible business practice on the part of Samsung? Should phone manufacturers be allowed to send ads via push notifications? Add your thoughts in the comments section below.
Laura has spent nearly 20 years writing news, reviews, and op-eds, with more than 10 of those years as an editor as well. She has exclusively used Apple products for the past three decades. In addition to writing and editing at MTE, she also runs the site’s sponsored review program.
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