Last week, many Huawei smartphone users reported that they are seeing advertisements on the phone’s lock screen. The ad is for Booking.com and if the user clicks on it, they are redirected to the travel portal.
The advertisement was reportedly being shown on several smartphone models from the company, including P20, P20 Lite, P20 Pro as well as a couple of Honor devices such as Honor 10 and Honor 20. Users from countries including the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Netherlands, Germany, and Norway complained about the ads.
After complaints from the user, the company has now removed advertisements from the lock screen. In a statement, the company said that the ads shouldn’t have been showing up on devices in the first place.
The company noted that choosing to implement this idea was a mistake and acknowledged that it was having a negative effect on people’s experiences with using their devices. It apologized for inconveniencing users and has stated that it is committed to bringing them a user experience that they will enjoy by continuing to improve the services.
Huawei has said that the ads which were showing up for people who had the built-in landscapes set as their lock screen wallpaper option have been removed from the company’s servers. This means that the users shouldn’t be showing back up for anyone else in the future.
It noted that some users may have downloaded some or all of those ad images to their devices. They simply need to delete those images from the phones. If those images happen to pop back up, users need to drag up on the lock screen from the bottom edge. It will show a delete option followed by a confirmation box confirming that the user wants the image to be deleted from the device.
Huawei isn’t the first brand to show ads on its devices. Amazon is also doing the same for the smartphones sold through its Prime Exclusive program. But Amazon clarifies that Prime Exclusive phones, which offers a significant discount on the retail price, will be showing ads and deals on the lock screen.
Another China-based smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi is also showing ads on the devices running MIUI OS. The company has confirmed that the ads are here to stay but is now optimizing the implementation of the advertisements.
(Via)
