Previously, Microsoft only put ads in the “Other” tab of its Outlook mobile app for free users, but now, it’s adding them to the single-inbox mode as well, as pointed out by The Verge.
The change appears to be making it harder for free users to avoid ads in Outlook for iOS and Android. As of now, the only way to avoid ads in the official Outlook mobile apps is to pay for a Microsoft 365 subscription.
The iOS @Outlook app shows me ads that look like emails now, get the fuck outta here @Microsoft pic.twitter.com/o6dSIY85Yt
— Nick Smith (@yonicksmith)
“For free users of Outlook, ads are shown in their inbox and they can choose to enable the ‘Focused inbox’ feature if they would like to see ads only in the ‘Other’ inbox,” Microsoft spokesperson Caitlin Roulston confirmed the change in a statement.
The ads appear at the top of an inbox and look confusingly like real emails, similar to how both Microsoft and Google display ads inside the web versions of Outlook and Gmail. You can swipe to delete the email-like ads, but they’ll soon reappear, and opening one will display advertising content within an in-app browser.
A growing number of Outlook for iOS users are leaving one-star review complaints on the App Store for the same reason.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
For the first time in 25 years, I’m looking for an alternative because of this.
You got to be kidding, especially since Apple has increased their ad revenue on iOS apps to now be 5 billion a year, and it’s growing exponentially. Apple the scaremongering company is now racking in over 5 billion dollars a year for ads they are generating on iOS.
This has absolutely nothing to do with Apple