Huawei Removes Ads That Started Showing up on Lock Screen of Its Devices

The besieged Chinese tech company pulls ads that began appearing on the lock screens of its devices this week, which honestly is the last thing it needed to be doing right now.

John Loeffler

| Jun 14, 2019 10:36 PM EST

Created: Jun 14, 2019 10:36 PM EST

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Huawei reversed course this week and removed the advertisements that began to appear on the lock screens of the devices of its users in Europe and South Africa after pushback from consumers online.

Huawei Removes Ads from Device Lock Screen After Users Protest

Embattled Chinese tech giant Huawei moved quickly to remove ads that had begun to appear as the wallpaper of lock screen on some of its devices in Europe and South Africa after receiving pushback online from users, a smart move for a company who is likely desperate to avoid more negative press.

Advertisements Are an Annoying but Inevitable Part of the Economy, So You Really Can't Blame Huawei

Unfortunately, ads are an unending slog of daily life. Larger and larger ads occupy more and more of our natural spaces through billboards and other media, and may one day obscure our view of the stars themselves. They're on the websites we visit, they fill up our mailboxes, and clog up our email inboxes, so no one can blame Huawei users for getting angry that another formerly ad-free space has been taken over by advertising.

Not unlike the current revenue shortfalls from the drop-off of subscriptions and newsstand sales facing media outlets in the digital age, Huawei kind of has its back against the wall with the US trade blacklisting, which is without question cutting deeply into its revenues as a company. Huawei sent a statement to Android Central stating that the inclusion of ads was unintentional and that they had removed the images from the company's servers:

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"Dear users, we thank you for your candid comments, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused to your experience. Please kindly be informed that we have taken down those lock-screen images from our servers, as they should not be appearing on lock-screen interfaces.

For the image/s already downloaded to your phone, you may delete as per following:

1) When the image appears on the screen, slide up from the bottom edge of the screen, and the operation toolbar appears;

2) Click the "Delete" button and click "Remove" in the confirmation box which pops up.

"We will continue to improve our services and brings you excellent user experience."

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Given the limited scope of the ads, however, it seems less likely that this was an unintentional blip--otherwise it would likely have been much more widespread--and much more likely that this was a test of how its user base would respond to ads on their lock screens. Given the financial strain the company is undoubtedly under, it shouldn't surprise anyone if they're testing potentially untapped revenue streams to sustain themselves through their blacklisting. Just like media websites like the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and others have turned to online advertisements and paywalls to make up for lost revenue from print subscriptions, you can expect more and more businesses to follow suit to sustain their operation as technology continues to disrupt existing business models.

That being said, this still probably wasn't the best time for Huawei to try sneak ads onto their lock screen; they have enough headaches as it is, they don't really need to be trendsetters in this particular space if they can help it.