iOS Announcements and Offers
150% of my iPhone 14 Pro Max’s screen on the App Store’s Today screen is occupied by advertisements that aren’t relevant to my interests. Apple’s services team is ruining the experience.
Ugh. I got hit by two Apple ads this morning. What the f is this shit?
First, some Apple Store ad for Valentines Day.
Then I open Music to get my day going and this is what I get immediately. An ad for the Super Bowl Halftime Show. 😒
When did Apple get so freakin’ spammy?!
Turn off Apple Store Spam notifications by going to Account > Settings > Notifications and switching off “Announcements and Offers”
Earlier I posted about shutting off Spam Notifications from Apple via the Apple Store app.
Well, apparently it’s worse. If you shut it off, you get this little reminder (that won’t go away unless you re-enable the spam notifications). This is so fucking user hostile.
These sorts of ads in the Apple TV app are so obnoxious.
The worst part is this is literally when you launch the app. Don’t do this shit! This is a bad, dark pattern! Apple doesn’t get to claim moral high ground when it does stuff like this!
Previously:
- The Enshittification of All Things
- Get Rid of the Apple Pay Setup Badge
- Featured Section in TV App
- App Store Ads in Today and App Pages
- The Apple Services Experience Is Not Good Enough
- The Paywalled Garden: iOS Is Adware
Update (2023-04-06): Mario Guzman:
I love how the Music app keeps asking me to choose an Apple Music plan despite having an Apple One membership — and the highest tier at that. 😒 This is the fourth time I get this view today.
Update (2023-06-01): Mario Guzman:
Apple doesn’t respect your choices OR this is just another bug…
With my new Beats, Settings app now advertises AppleCare+. But even if I decline by saying “Not Now” and then “Don’t Show Again”, it’ll bring it up in a couple days.
This is the third time I’ve done this.
Update (2023-07-06): Adam Chandler:
I never searched for Apple Arcade, nor do I have it installed on my iPhone.
This is an advertisement.
Update (2023-07-26): Daniel Jalkut:
Pretty sure Apple News just abused the social contract for their top stories notifications. If they weren’t involved in Lionel Messi’s soccer career in the US, I don’t think his debut would have warranted a wrist notification.
Update (2023-08-18): Thomas Clement:
But seriously, one notification every two weeks. Is there an off switch somewhere?
Update (2025-05-20): Brent Simmons:
I opened GarageBand for the first time in years and there was an ad for Logic Pro in the app.
One of the reasons I returned my recent iPad purchase was the constant nagging from upsell advertisements. I never thought my iPad3 may be a better experience in 2025 than a shiny new iPad air M3.
Update (2025-10-23): Ben Sandofsky:
Out of nowhere, I got a full screen ad for Apple Arcade on my Home Screen. My jaw dropped.
Previously:
Update (2025-10-27): Ben Sandofsky:
Update: this is not a pushed ad. It looks like a phantom tap on my Home Screen for some reason went to Balatro on screen 2, which triggers the ad since my subscription lapsed.
Via Jason Anthony Guy:
Pushing an ad to your Home Screen would be a clear abuse of Apple’s privilege, yet people were not the least bit incredulous that it happened. The immediate reaction to Sandofsky’s post wasn’t Apple did what?! That’s not like them. It was Of course they did.
After all, it’s the same company that recently violated its own guidelines to push a movie promo to Apple Wallet, and which currently displays ads for AppleCare One in my Settings app and for Apple Card in my Wallet app. It wasn’t that great a leap to believe that Apple had again violated its customers’ trust—and the sanctity of their Home Screens—with an ad for one of its lesser-known services.
Apple’s philosophy has always been that you pay your money and you get a product that does what it says on the tin—or aluminum, I suppose. No upsell, no “Intel Inside” stickers, no ads in the menu bar. “We build products that we want for ourselves, too, and we just don’t want ads,” said Steve Jobs in 2011. “Our business model is very straightforward: We sell great products,” wrote Tim Cook in 2014.
Those quotes are from a different era of Apple and with different contexts (mail, privacy), but they feel instructive—Apple was the one company we could confidently say would always do right by its customers.
6 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
As someone who doesn't use iCloud let me tell you, Apple have been spammy for years.
I live in the Netherlands and my App Store region is set to the Netherlands. “Announcements & Offers” is off and I don’t see a little reminder.
They better squeeze that rock for as much money as possible while they still can.
GO APPLE! Woooo! TIIIM!
I’d be happy if Apple TV+ would at least stop showing me the same pre-roll trailer (yes, those are ads, too) again and again. Worse, it doesn’t even stop if I’ve already seen and finished that show.
Remember when everyone was saying that Apple had too much taste to display ads in their products? Good laugh.
