Apple will stop 'Shake' advertising, and people are calling for no more

This year’s Double 11, the hottest topic is not discounts or the star of the party, but “shake” to jump.

In recent times, many users have complained on social platforms that "open-screen ads" occupy almost every application, plus "shake one" Shake to jump, everything has become a portal to the shopping platform. Among them, iPhone users are the ones suffering the most.

(Photo source: Weibo)

Currently, only iOS The system does not impose strict restrictions on application jumps, but domestic UIs such as ColorOS, MIUI, and OriginOS have already taken some countermeasures, such as accessing before jumping and prohibiting all jumps. However, it may be that the chaos of Double 11 this year has intensified, and the "Shake" jump has alarmed Apple.

It is reported that Apple has issued warnings to several leading Chinese APP developers, requiring them to cancel malicious calls to gyroscopes to trigger ad jumps as soon as possible in new versions of the applications. These developers who have received the warning can only put their apps on the App Store after canceling the "Shake" ads.

#I have to say that sometimes, Apple’s tough attitude towards developers is still very useful.

#Apple is forced to take action, "Shake it" Is the end coming?

Essentially, "Shake" ads use the phone's built-in gyroscope sensor to detect the user's movements, thereby triggering the behavior of jumping to other applications. Solving this problem is not difficult.

iOS can be regarded as the first system among many mobile systems to start paying attention to security permissions. As early as iOS 10, Apple has made clear regulations for App developers. Standard, calling the camera, microphone, positioning, etc. requires independent authorization. iOS has also added more options in subsequent versions, such as the scope of permissions for applications to obtain photos, and users can lock which photos an application can only read.

(Source: Apple)

These relatively sensitive hardware , iOS almost all provides developers with safety tips for calling and using, and in the past few years, iPhone users would not be bothered by such problems. Until the arrival of the "Shake It Up" commercial.

Since iOS does not have security requirements for hardware such as gyroscopes and accelerometers, developers can call this permission at will to allow the App to display ads on the activation page. As long as the user shakes the phone, the application will be jumped immediately. For example, during Double 11 this year, almost all information, music, and video applications will design ads on the startup page that jump to shopping platforms. This jump is almost unavoidable.

(Photo source: Weibo)

However, Apple does not Instead of designing a targeted switch in the system like other Android brands, or letting the user decide whether to jump, developers are required to modify the gyroscope permissions. In addition, this "ban" is quite strict. Applications that do not comply with the new standards will be directly removed from the App Store.

(Source: Apple)

As we all know, iPhone, iPad The only way to download applications is the official App Store. For application developers, once the applications they develop are removed from the App Store, the damage to their interests will be immeasurable. Therefore, even though Apple has always been very strict with developers, no developer dares to go against Apple.

In the App Store Transparency Report issued by Apple in 2022, it was mentioned that as many as 180,000 applications were officially removed from the shelves that year, among which " Applications that "illegally exploit permissions" and "bypass official payment channels" account for the vast majority. Among them, the most classic case is a certain network disk application. Because of its "automatic backup" function, Apple officially deemed it "illegal use of permissions" and removed it from the shelves.

# It seems that Apple’s request for developers to rectify the “Shake” ads is not without lessons. According to Xiao Lei, the reason why Apple learned that this permission was maliciously exploited by developers was probably because it received reports and complaints from Chinese users. Zhihu netizen "Lan Xiaohui" showed this in his answer to a related topic. In the report email sent to Apple's security department on 11.11, perhaps the "Shake" advertisement was noticed by Apple officials, and he had to take some credit.

(Photo source: Zhihu)

beat "Shake One" Shake", the apple is late

As early as January this year, Xiaomi added an "acceleration sensor permission" function to the MIUI development version 23.1.3 to deal with these annoying "shake" ads.

Not only that, Honor’s MagicOS, vivo’s OriginOS and Xiaomi’s latest Thermal OS have corresponding measures to solve the problem of jump ads. Of course, in addition to mobile phone brands, individual software developers such as "Li Tiaotiao" have long joined the camp to fight against open-screen ads and ad redirects. Unfortunately, such software has been downloaded due to suspicion of unfair competition. shelf.

(Source: Weibo)

Obviously, Apple is targeting The "shake it up" measure came a little late, but it can solve the problem at its root.

#As we all know, software in the Android camp can be freely installed from any source, which means that users do not have to use the official app store to download programs, which in turn leads to the system’s Developers are also relatively more "letting go". Unable to restrict developers, mobile phone brands in the Android camp can only provide access permissions or sensor switch options in the system to alleviate this chaos.

(Source: Weibo)

Xiaomi's ThePaper OS is an example. It provides "acceleration sensor permissions" and users can turn on/off corresponding permissions according to the needs of each program. Once closed, the application cannot access the acceleration sensor. If a program setting requires this permission to be turned on before it can be used, the user will not be able to activate the program normally.

As for the "ask every jump" solution, when most applications have "shake" ads, inquiry pop-ups will pop up constantly. On the contrary, it will disgust users. This matter has been tested on iOS 16. The result was complaints from users around the world, forcing Apple to urgently modify the options for accessing pop-up windows.

(Source: Weibo)

Apple directly develops Starting from the developer's perspective, this behavior is directly prohibited at the development level. Of course, canceling "Shake" ads does not mean canceling open-screen ads. Even if Apple does not allow developers to abuse the gyroscope, it does not mean that open-screen ads will completely disappear on the iPhone.

Let’s elaborate on why Apple wants to solve this problem from the developer level. In the final analysis, this phenomenon affects the user experience, and Apple does not get any benefits from it. , and may even damage the image of the iPhone in the minds of consumers due to "shoddy" applications.

#But no matter what, Apple finally paid attention to this problem. Even if it came a little late, it finally found a solution to this chaos on the iPhone.

"Shake it" has laid a major hidden danger for Apple

#As a commercial company, Apple always It pays attention to the economic benefits behind its products, such as the "Apple tax", which has been criticized for many years and has not changed.

#And Apple’s attitude towards advertising is not completely rejected, as it has quietly added advertising spaces on the App Store, as well as the upcoming search bar advertising and Marketing information recommendations, etc. But all this must be based on one condition: hardware sales are high enough.

Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that after receiving complaints and reports, Apple immediately issued a warning to App developers. Such chaos will affect the iPhone in the market. Image and reputation, when the sales of the iPhone 15 series are already poor, Apple is even less likely to tolerate such chaos.

(Source: Apple)

Dig deeper , the "Shake" advertisement can easily mobilize the gyroscope and read the user's motion sensor data. To a certain extent, it also means that the privacy and security that Apple has always been proud of are not worth mentioning in front of developers. , the impact can be said to be quite fatal.

It is foreseeable that Apple will gradually tighten the conditions for developers to read relevant data and mobilize hardware permissions in the future, so that the iPhone can return to a sufficiently safe situation. For now, developers still need sufficient cooperation.

In the final analysis, "Shake" advertising is at the C position of current Internet marketing and is responsible for too many "jump rates" and "App access rates" Waiting for a commercial task, if you want to stop it immediately, there are too many difficulties. But fortunately, both the Android camp and Apple have provided unique solutions, but the effectiveness may have to wait until the next major promotion event.

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