Could Apple and Samsung bring ads to your iPhone and Android or make you subscribe to it?

Online advertising has turned into the backbone of today's Internet because it quite literally helps to keep websites alive. They're businesses, after all! Online advertising includes product listing ads, display ads, demand-side platform ads, affiliate ads, native ads, social media ads, video ads, and email ads. You see them when you're trying to book a holiday, and you see them on YouTube (they are the reason YouTube is free).

Of course, today, we've replaced most websites with their dedicated apps, so we can easily access them on our smartphones. With that, ads have also made their way into the apps we use. It could be Facebook and Instagram trying to sell you a new pair of Nikes or your favorite game trying to get you to download another game - it's all ad space that other businesses buy and use to flourish…


But what if your iPhone or Android phone, which you've already paid in full, also showed you ads throughout the system? Yes, that's a thing! Oh, and yes, it's already been happening for years. But will it reach your phone?

Android phones with ads exist and they can be annoying: Samsung, Redmi, Poco, Realme...

The reason I even decided to put this story together in the first place was a YouTube video I saw named "The Best Ad-free SmartPhone Under 20,000 (INR)". It turns out this was a little clickbaity since ad-free phones weren't really the focus of the video, but the idea is that nearly 100,000 (Indian) viewers clearly cared enough to click and watch.

That's because many budget and mid-range phones in parts of Asia, including India and China, come with ads!

If you'd like to gain a better understanding of which phones come with what kind of ads in India, you can check out this helpful video by Geekyranjit, who's a fellow smartphone enthusiast with many years of experience.

But in a nutshell, although budget and mid-range phones from brands like Nokia and Motorola come without ads and mostly without any bloatware (pre-installed apps and services), phones from Realme, Poco (Xiaomi), Redmi (Xiaomi), and even Samsung don't enjoy the same ad-free treatment in the Indian subcontinent.

According to Ranjit and Gadgets 360, the most annoying phones ad-wise come from Redmi (Xiaomi), which sells phones in Asia, but also in Europe. Ads on Redmi phones can be seen in the Music, Themes, File Manager, Downloads, and Security and apps. Ads are also present in the European/Global versions of MIUI - Redmi's skin on top of Android 12, but interestingly not on all phones. For example, as discovered by our colleagues at GSMArena, the Redmi Note 11 Pro has no ads, but the Redmi Note 11 does.

Budget phones from Poco, Realme, and Samsung aren't quite as bad in that regard, meaning they don't necessarily show you "ads". That being said, they do come with a ton of unwanted "nagware" in the form of notifications, pre-installed apps, browser pop-ups, and even new apps (that you might not necessarily want or need) that arrive with OTA updates.

The good news for Asian and European customers is that many of those ads/nagware notifications can be disabled. The bad news is that this isn't something that the average person will know how to do, and even if they did, this would be far from a "one-click solution" - it's not like putting your phone on silent.

Ads in iOS and Android: Apple and Samsung's last resort for making phones cheaper?

One reason that budget phones sold in Asia and some parts of Europe can contain ads is that they are… cheaper. Also, as it turns out, phone makers can get away with it.

Furthermore, it's not like unwanted phone ads and notifications are (technically) forced upon customers because you quite literally agree to have them when you set up your phone. For example, that's the case with budget Galaxy devices (mostly M-series) which ask you to create a Samsung account upon setup (which in return can overwhelm you with notifications later on).

Apple, Samsung, and Google phones already show you "ads" which might not necessarily look like "ads"

But what about "western" or flagship phones from brands like Apple, Samsung, Google, etc.? Well, even if you might not realize it, big manufacturers have found ways to monetize their software space even without showing you "in-your-face ads".

For example, Samsung partners with Microsoft, which means every Samsung phone comes pre-installed with MS Office. Sure, pre-installed apps technically fall into the category of "bloatware" and, of course, can be uninstalled, but aren't they a way of advertising a product/service? You do the thinking.