Google Bans Ad Blockers in Play Store, but In-Browser Ad Blockers Still Allowed

[Batu69]

The search giant has just updated its content policy website

   Google Developer Policy Center

 

Google recently updated its content policy update for the Play Store and clarified one of the most controversial aspects while at it.

The search giant clearly states in the new policy rules that it is not alright for an application to block or interfere with another app displaying adds.

There has been much talk around Google's ban on ad blockers in the Play Store, as the company did not have a clear stance on the subject.

Devs of those apps found interfering with third-party apps or services displaying ads usually received a letter that informed them that their creations are against the company's distribution agreement.

But not anymore as Google updated section 4.4 of the old distribution agreement that goes back almost three years. Here is an example of what your apps should not do if you want it to be accepted in the Google Play Store:

“Apps that block or interfere with another app displaying ads.

Game cheating apps that affect the gameplay of other apps.

Apps that facilitate or provide instructions on how to hack services, software or hardware, or circumvent security protections.

Apps that access or use a service or API in a manner that violates its terms of service.

Apps that attempt to bypass system power management that are not eligible for whitelisting.”

We're still in a gray area, but improvements have been made

However, Google has decided that in-browser ad blockers are quite alright, so Android users will still be able to download apps like Adblock Fast, Adblock Browser, and Brave Browser.

In-browser ad blocking has been allowed on iOS platform for quite some time, so banning these apps that facilitate this function would have put Google in an awkward position, especially that a big chunk of the company's revenue comes from web ads.

Since in-browser ad blockers are so popular among Android users, it would have hurt Google more to ban rather than allow them in the Play Store.

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[Akaneharuka]

That mean gXXgle don't want any program  block their advertisement  ?  :/

 

gxxgle nowadays

 

[bubbada]

If a customer dont want ads they should not display them, google play is turning into adware.

[DKT27]

I think ads in apps are good source of payment for the devs. I was fine with allowing ads, which I even do now as I do not want to waste my phone's CPU and RAM after a adblocking software, until I started seeing apps with full screen ads which were annoying, repeated again and again and were not easily closeable. This type of ads which are the ones that annoy users and make them use a adbocker and Google should first do something about them.

[steven36]

1 hour ago, DKT27 said:

I think ads in apps are good source of payment for the devs. I was fine with allowing ads, which I even do now as I do not want to waste my phone's CPU and RAM after a adblocking software, until I started seeing apps with full screen ads which were annoying, repeated again and again and were not easily closeable. This type of ads which are the ones that annoy users and make them use a adbocker and Google should first do something about them.

Back in the 1st  decade of the 21st century before the rise of adblockers there were so much ads  on the internet  that it was nothing to be hijacked to many ad sites  this is why they invented adblockers . Also many free programs back then were full of spyware .  I cant stand Adware  that's why i dont use Google services they are a ad marketing company witch makes them Adware in a sense .  About the only freeware I use is stuff i can block with a firewall . My favorite softwares is shareware and open source . If the software is worth having people would buy it or donate there no need for ads.

[DKT27]

19 minutes ago, steven36 said:

Back in the 1st  decade of the 21st century before the rise of adblockers there were so much ads  on the internet  that it was nothing to be hijacked to many ad sites  this is why they invented adblockers . Also many free programs back then were full of spyware .  I cant stand Adware  that's why i dont use Google services they are a ad marketing company witch makes them Adware in a sense .  About the only freeware I use is stuff i can block with a firewall . My favorite softwares is shareware and open source . If the software is worth having people would buy it or donate there no need for ads.

 

Well, I was introduced to PC and later internet only in the latter half of it. Did not know about Firefox then, was later introduced to it. Then came to know about ABP, but that too not fast. The main annoyance to me before ABP was not ads, but ads that were popups.

 

I would decide on a product by merit though. I did not switch to Firefox at first as it was not upto the mark then, right now I think same about Chrome. I used ABP for a long time, did not switch to uBlock Origin for some time, switched when I found it was efficient and better than ABP in some ways that I found after testing it. Then comes things like Android. Is it right to take it on just because it's Google and it's a ad marketing company. Well, all I can say is Android is far to good to ignore. Something that can modified to requirements, including blocking ads by apps if you want.

 

There comes free apps on Android. Google is angry because not many are buying them. Recently, I even saw a famous app maker stopped updating it's paid version, probably because not many bought it's paid version I think.

[steven36]

11 minutes ago, DKT27 said:

 

Well, I was introduced to PC and later internet only in the latter half of it. Did not know about Firefox then, was later introduced to it. Then came to know about ABP, but that too not fast. The main annoyance to me before ABP was not ads, but ads that were popups.

 

I would decide on a product by merit though. I did not switch to Firefox at first as it was not upto the mark then, right now I think same about Chrome. I used ABP for a long time, did not switch to uBlock Origin for some time, switched when I found it was efficient and better than ABP in some ways that I found after testing it. Then comes things like Android. Is it right to take it on just because it's Google and it's a ad marketing company. Well, all I can say is Android is far to good to ignore. Something that can modified to requirements, including blocking ads if you want.

 

There comes free apps on Android. Google is angry because not many are buying them. Recently, I even saw a famous app maker stopped updating it's paid version, probably because no one bought it's paid version I think.

Google are being hypocritical  like always  they host adblockers  for there browsers but they block the use of them on there site. Just like they try to ban YouTube downloading from there browsers  but have addons  that let people download videos from sites that dont belong to Google .  Google Chrome is only 7 years old  For the 1st 5 or 6 years i was on the internet I used IE  then i switched to Firefox  2006 i guess it was . I used  mostly Firefox or a clone of Firefox every since  .  Ive use some Chromium based browsers just for a back up  but I never used Google Chrome  for no more than testing it  . And Geko based have been my default for many years .  If Google is going be like this with Android ill stay away from it  its a shame because its got hope as a desktop O/S as well.

[Xionic]

Since When We Download Ad Blockers From Play Store So We Can Give a Damn About Them 

[benjd91]

So you need ad-blockers?

 

Well there are apk's for that. If Google play doesn't host it, then we go back to vanilla way of hosting it on their own websites.

Those full screen repetitive ads suck anyway, and also take up bandwidth. You thought you were only playing 5mb worth of data in CoC, but you realize you're paying for 1GB consumed by ads' pictures, and now videos too, that nevertheless autoplay by the way and you can't close them if you haven't watched them.