You probably saw several tech websites talk about the possibility of the upcoming One UI 2.5 bringing lock screen ads to its horrified users. There were screenshots floating around showing that it may indeed be coming soon and will even require you to watch ads before you can unlock your phone. Good thing there were people who tried to dig deeper and discovered that it was all just a lost-in-translation kind of misunderstanding. But that doesn’t mean there are no ads on Samsung devices as we are currently seeing a lot of them.
Thanks to the folks over at SAM Mobile, we can put to rest those rumors that the soon-to-be-released One UI 2.5 will bring lock screen ads to your probably expensive Samsung smartphone. They were able to uncover the context of that screenshot going around and figured out that it was not an official or leaked upcoming feature that we’ll see on the One UI 2.5. In fact, it was a joke that somehow got lost in translation. But where it came from is also a problem that Samsung needs to figure out.
Owners of Samsung phones in South Korea started complaining that their native Weather app suddenly showed a banner ad which they felt was invasive. And so forums started discussing and eventually joking about it. Some were suggesting that maybe Samsung would eventually let you watch a 15-second video before unlocking your phone. That joke eventually got turned into an example image. But some (well Tizen Help started it) actually thought it was a leaked screenshot.
But just because we’re not really getting lock screen ads on the One UI 2.5 doesn’t mean we won’t continue to see ads. Several stock One UI apps already have banner ads like with the aforementioned Weather app, Phone, Music, Bixby, Samsung Health, etc. They even have push notifications to sell you some other Samsung products. And if you already paid a thousand dollars for your device, that can be pretty annoying.
It may be a bit understandable to see ads on low-range and mid-tier devices as they sometimes use ads to offset the costs. But Samsung is probably the only OEM that places ads on flagship devices as well, XDA Developers says. Thankfully, that One UI 2.5 lock screen ads was all just a big joke.
