HTC is sending ads directly to the notification shade of HTC One M8 and M9 owners
In what’s either a move of total desperation, or the result of a really out-of-touch advertising executive at HTC, the Taiwanese manufacturer of one of our favorite lines of phones has actually started pushing out ads to users of the HTC One M8 and One M9 devices. According to several threads on Reddit, the ads are for the Fantastic Four movie, inviting users to download a related theme.
What makes this particularly egregious is that there doesn’t seem to be a way to opt out of this – although HTC is experimenting with ads in BlinkFeed, users can easily turn them off there. This ad, which apparently was actually served up by Sense Home, can’t be turned off – only dismissed after it’s already reared its ugly head. And while HTC might argue that it wasn’t really an ad, but rather a notification for a new theme, the reality is that the tagline makes it clear what its underlying purpose really is: “In theaters 08.07.05”
While not all owners of the One M8 and One M9 saw the ad, it seems that users in the US were targeted. I hope the small profit that HTC saw from this blunder is worth all the headaches and complaints that users are currently throwing its way.
[Reddit: 1, 2 via Android Police]
