“The only workaround is not to use the built-in magazine background images”
It’s been almost three weeks since the Trump administration blacklisted Huawei in the US and the company has been in the spotlight ever since. With all the negative publicity, it seems the Chinese giant has already started witnessing the repercussions through its smartphone sales as multiple users now report they are seeing lockscreen advertisements on their Huawei phones, including flagships. The affected models include the Huawei P30 Pro, P20, P20 Lite, Honor 10, and P20 Pro. Apparently, ads from hotel booking platform ‘Booking.com’ started appearing for users’ who are using the preinstalled landscape background wallpapers.
Wtf. https://t.co/Fv4RzUmM1D ads on my lock screen. Anyone else with a Huawei getting this? pic.twitter.com/ILI6vs6wVD— Ed Spencer (@efjspencer) June 13, 2019
Ah hear… @Huawei why am I now being served ads on my lock screen? Stop it! Moreover @bookingcom what idiot in marketing thought this was ok? #ads #DigitalMarketing #Huawei #measure pic.twitter.com/Ta1lslMwsP— Dave Rooney (@daverooney) June 13, 2019
Furthermore, these ads don’t seem region specific as users from UK, Netherlands, Ireland, South Africa, Norway, and Germany are affected by this. After paying a premium for the smartphone, this isn’t the kind of experience one would expect. For now, the only workaround to rid of these advertisements is not to use the built-in magazine background images. At the moment, it isn’t clear if this was intentional or a server-side error from Huawei.
Separately, with the US trade ban coming in a month after the first quarter, Huawei witnessed strong quarterly performance as the brand shipped around 13.5 million smartphones in the European continent, which is a significant 66 percent growth YoY. With Huawei’s grace period ending in August, the company is preparing its Android alternative, dubbed Ark OS, with alleged screenshots revealed in the patent filing. The brand also reportedly requested developers to publish apps on AppGallery, its Google Play replacement. It needs to be seen how Huawei will replace popular apps like YouTube, Gmail, and others that most Android users rely on.
