“Samsung launched an Ad Blocker for its phones on the Google Play store called Adblock Fast earlier this week,” Ian Morris reports for Forbes. “Google has since pulled the app, claiming that it’s in breach of the developer agreement. Specifically section 4.4, which prevents apps from messing with third-party services.”
“The app had, apparently, reached some 50,000 downloads before Google flipped the switch,” Morris reports. “In the past Google has pulled other ad blockers from Google Play. In 2013 Google went on a little mission, removing AdBlock Plus from the store along with some other, similar, products. Although in 2015 AdBlock Plus was able to get back into the Play store and is still there.”
“The reason Ablock Plus has survived is that Google does allow ad blockers if they are within their own, self-contained browser. So what was it about this app that didn’t qualify for the exception, given that it was only accessible through Samsung’s browser and couldn’t affect either Android’s OEM app, or Google’s Chrome,” Morris reports. “The simplest solution would be for Samsung to simply put its own browser into the Google Play store, with Adblock Fast built-in. As the next version of Samsung’s phones rolls out it can simply build the ad blocker into its version of Android. Google can’t do anything to stop that, although it’s unlikely to reduce tensions between the two companies.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Friction in the land of Fragmandroid, where “open” isn’t really open at all.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]