14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung has found another way to anger its own users, as the company has started showing ads on their devices using push notifications.
Galaxy S8 users are complaining on Reddit that Samsung is using the super-popular (read this with a sarcastic voice) Game Optimizing Service to deliver a number of ads, some of which are pointing to games that are published in the Play store.
Game Optimizing Service was implemented in Samsung’s latest devices to improve gaming performance and reduce battery usage, though it looks like the South Korean firm has now found a different purpose for it: display ads with push notifications.
“I didn’t pay $1000 to see ads on my phone”
One of the users who took to reddit to complain explained that an advertisement for Load Runner Classic was displayed on his Galaxy S8+ twice in the past week, while another one confirmed that the exact same ad showed up on his device as well.
“Seriously... i didn't pay $1000 just to get ads on my phone,” one angry user posted, clearly not agreeing with Samsung showing ads on their devices.
Although at first glance there’s no way to block these ads, someone in the same thread has actually found a way to do that, and it’s not necessarily related to the Game Optimizing Service.
What you need to do to block the ads is fire up the Game Launcher app, open settings and disable the option that reads Receive Marketing Information. In case Game Launcher is not available on your device, you need to enable it manually, so head over to Settings > Advanced Features > Games and enable Game Launcher.
It goes without saying that Samsung hasn’t said a single word about this ad invasion, but at least there is a way to block the messages, though it should’ve been a lot more straightforward.
UPDATE: Some users posting in the same discussion thread claim that the ads also show up on the Samsung Galaxy S7, so there’s a good chance that Samsung is doing this on more devices than just on the S8. Steps to block the ads should be the same in all cases, though.
