The app had been supported by Samsung, which released a download enabling ad blocking in late January. Firefox allows ad blockers to be installed on its Android browser as plug-ins, but only through the browser itself.
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However, it should be noted that other apps of this ilk – including Adblock Plus, which even uses Samsung’s API as well – are still available in the Play Store.
The app is understood to have breached the rules because by blocking ads in the Samsung browser, it it was interfering with third-party services.
Users will be able to instantly block ads and contents on Samsung devices with the help of Adblock Fast. Now those developers are finding their apps are being pulled from the Google Play, and their updates are being declined. Users are drawn to mobile ad blockers due to a cleaner browsing experience, faster load times, and reduced data usage. The app quickly become the top free app on Google Play in the “Productivity” category, but has since been banned from Google Play.
The Adblock Fast app, which blocks ads in Samsung’s own mobile internet browser, disappeared from the store suddenly on Wednesday. Given that Google’s business does revolve around those ads, it might beg to disagree.
Ultimately, it appears Google will not allow any third-party app to block ads on another company’s product, despite any participation between the two.
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In a statement provided by Google, “While we don’t comment on specific apps, we can confirm that our policies are created to provide a great experience for users and developers”. Additionally, they sent a letter to Samsung’s developers at Rocketship Apps stating that they have reviewed it and it violates certain guidelines. It did interfere with ads on web pages, so Google could be taking issue with that, but what’s unusual is that the Adblock Plus app for Samsung’s browser is still live in Google Play. Either it will need to build in support for non-APK extensions, or it will need to figure out another way for developers to distribute their APK files outside of Google Play, such as in a self-hosted app store.
