[Thad E Ginathom]

I have never had ads on my android phones. I have always rooted them. All this experience of ads all over the place tells me why it is more important to do so now than it was a few years back, when it was just for tinkering and functionality.

I have become much less "techie" with age, but it remains a requirement of mine that any phone I buy in the future must be easily un-bootlock-able and rootable.

[bigron]

Originally Posted by raksrules

Thanks for the suggestions. I will play around with his phone and also check Youtube videos. Being iPhone user myself, I have never experienced anything like this so this is all new to me.

He has been unknowingly clicking/opening random whatsapp forwards and other pop up links on the websites during browsing. Most of them are malware and get installed on the phone once you click them.

Ideally, a phone reset is the way to go. Alternatively, install an antivirus and run a complete scan.

[neelkumar]

Originally Posted by raksrules

Now I saw the phone today and it is littered with Ads everywhere. Lockscreen itself has changing ad whenever we unlock phone, whenever call comes, there is a ad below it (I even saw bikini model in it). Then notifications from galaxy store for some ads it is peddling.

I'm using Android phones for some years (currently a Samsung S20+ without root) and I haven't seen ads on notifications or lock screen or pop-ups or anywhere in the common UI. I see them only inside of apps which are known to have them.

I guess your dad might have clicked on some forwarded links or such and has some apps installed. They could be hidden as well.

You can view all the apps under Settings > Apps and remove any unrecognised or suspicious apps. Do this with caution and don't remove system apps.

[poloman]

I have ads in only stock weather app in my Galaxy S20.This ad is always from snapchat. Not able to disable or remove this app. So far ads are not seen in other Samsung stock apps. There are reports that ads are present in even 1500USD Galaxy fold.
This is ridiculous. User installed apps can have ads since those are optional and free. But why on hell the phone company have ads in their stock apps.

Be very careful in updating apps. Suddenly these ads will get injected after an update.


All these companies known for innovations like Google have now degraded to ad companies and their only aim is to make money by hook and crook. Just search for something in google. First one or two pages will be ads only.

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by fiat_tarun

Samsung seems to have really worked on their software quality as I am someone who installs updates as soon as the notification pops up and it's been very smooth thus far *touchwood* !

This is really great to hear. Samsung phones were notorious for poor Software updates, especially a MAJOR android / UI update. I have owned a Samsung phone in the past (S3) and it was extremely fluid with the stock android & corresponding Samsung UI.

But the day I updated it to the next android version, all hell broke lose!! The phone became dead slow, lags all over the place, extremely poor RAM management, etc. I tried everything from resetting to clearing the memory, but nothing worked.
Ultimately, I sold off that phone in under 2 years & swore to myself that never ever a Samsung!

Looks like they have come a long way & the recent phones age well. But I do make it a point to share my experience with my friends who intent to purchase the phone & don’t encourage them to update the software if they wish to continue the fluid experience with their phone.

[Candy$Cars]

Originally Posted by raksrules

Can anyone tell me how I can free this phone of these ads? I have seen people complain about chinese brands to have such ads but wasn't aware that Samsung also is doing the same and I am not used to seeing unsolicited ads on my phone and cannot expect my dad (70+ years) to have technical ability fix this.

I feel sorry for you but I don't think it will be easy for you to get rid of these ads. The only possible solution is a factory reset.
These ads are not because of Samsung pushing them, it is because father might have mistakenly clicked an ad while browsing on chrome/social media or may have used some game/application type thingy on facebook or from whatsapp messages that have these suspicious links(for ex), not blaming him at all.
I have suffered this problem in my mother's phone from time to time when she had an Asus Zenfone Selfie and a Asus Zenfone max pro. Even when she only used facebook carefully, some stupid ads had started randomly popping up. Even my father's old android phone used to be full of anonymous and borderline vulgar notifications on the notification panel (no ads though). As a result I got him a Oneplus 7T, checked back a few months ago, same story all over again.
Parents tend to tap on ads by mistake and respond to notifications that you get on opening sites on chrome etc. And then there are stupid whatsapp forwards claiming gifts and prizes and all kinds of crap. I completely cleaned my mother's phone of suspicious applications but the ads just won't go away, However, I did not try a factory reset.
Finally, I got her an iPhone XR and since then there have been no such problems. You should not have moved your father from ios to android. iOS is much safer and better for parents and non-tech savvy people who have just basic usage (facebook, youtube, insta, call). Android with its customisations can sometimes have these problems if you aren't careful.
The short term solution is to factory reset the phone, the long term solution is to move him back into iOS, get him an XR or the 11(pretty cheap now and cheaper during sales) and it will be perfect for him.
If you are able to get rid of the ads without any of the above solutions then good for you but I would still recommend iOS given he is used to the interface as well.

[raksrules]

He was using iPhone before and we never had this issue. Only after using android this started.

[dragntailonfire]

Originally Posted by raksrules

Then notifications from galaxy store for some ads it is peddling.

There is a setting called "Marketing Choice" in the galaxy store settings->notifications section. Switching this off will stop those ADs from showing up.
This should take care of the ADs generated by galaxy store. I have not seen any ads on the lock screen. You can probably check any other installed Samsung apps for this setting and switch it off, if it's there.

[fiat_tarun]

Originally Posted by ashvek3141

This is really great to hear. Samsung phones were notorious for poor Software updates, especially a MAJOR android / UI update. I have owned a Samsung phone in the past (S3) and it was extremely fluid with the stock android & corresponding Samsung UI.

But the day I updated it to the next android version, all hell broke lose!! The phone became dead slow, lags all over the place, extremely poor RAM management, etc. I tried everything from resetting to clearing the memory, but nothing worked.
Ultimately, I sold off that phone in under 2 years & swore to myself that never ever a Samsung!
...

Those were the TouchWiz days which was downright horrible. I have turned so many people away from Samsung just for the horrible UI. Similar to you I stayed away from Samsung for a long time and jumped onto the Moto, Nexus and Oneplus bandwagon. After the launch of One UI I started reading very good things about Samsung software and decided to try it out for a change and it has been a pleasant surprise! Got my December security update 2 days ago

[krish3]

I last used a Samsung on a Note 8. Software updates were not great. Heard it got One UI 1.0. Moved onto iPhone 8 Plus, Huawei Mate 10 Pro and now OnePlus 7T Pro. Huawei was a great experience till they had issues with Google (read US)

OnePlus 7T hasn't got a Beta update since a dumb one in October. So much for fast updates!! Like every other company, they focus only on the latest releases. The phone is still fast and smooth and has an acceptable camera stack.

Hearing the way Samsung has become better, I'm now eyeing the Flip 2 when it comes out next year.

[MatteBlack]

My dad rocks a Samsung Galaxy J6 and he is quite satisfied by the phone. OneUI once you get used to it isn't actually half as bad as it may seem. Since the J6 is a budget phone, the update situation is not great but not terrible either.

[deetjohn]

Just picked up a Pixel 4a to replace my ~3 years old Moto X4. Physically, it's still in a great shape even though I don't use screen guard or a case on my phones. But some of the apps that I frequent like DriveTribe, Fantasy PL, Guardian, phone banking...etc were becoming too much for the X4 at times which made me go for the upgrade.

I have never paid more than 20k on a phone till now, so 4a is expensive for me. A friend got it from the US which made it slightly reasonable and I got the barely blue for a change.

I just wanted a phone with compact build, great camera, clean OS and the 4a ticked all those boxes. It light weight but feels solid and nicely balanced at the same time.

[neelkumar]

Have bought a Samsung Galaxy S20+ a month back.

This is after using OnePlus 5 for about 3 years. The experience was still butter smooth, but had to replace due to (all observed in the past few months):

1. Mainly, it's Alert Slider isn't working anymore and it would frequently and automatically switch to silent and I would miss all the calls.
2. The fingerprint sensor won't recognise mine and had to enter the PIN or password everytime
3. The telephoto camera has some issues and if I switch to it, the photos come blurry. I could never use the zoom functionality

Now coming to the S20+, it's funny that this won't recognise my fingerprints either. Yes, I did scan my fingerprints and yes I have prints on my fingers.

We tried with my wife's fingerprints and same issue there as well. This is with/without the screen guard.

During my research I was actually so focused on comparing this to iPhone 11 that I missed going through its detailed reviews and yes, there are complaints on the fingerprint sensor everywhere.

The problem is that the S20+'s ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is very sensitive. A speck of dust or a drop of water on your finger and it won't recognise. A variation in the angle of your scanning to unlock vs the stored fingerprint and it won't recognise. So, I gave up and I'm now using face unlock which I know is not that secure.

And now coming to its pros:

1. I love the AMOLED screen. Once you experience this, there's no going back to other screen types. Main reason, why I stayed with Samsung or OnePlus from the past 6+ years.
2. Just to save the battery, I disable 120Hz refresh rate and the WQHD+ resolution, but when I use either of them, the experience is awesome.
3. The battery? I almost get 24hrs on full charge with 60Hz and FHD+. This is after almost 4-5 hrs of browsing and 2 hrs of streaming videos and Location and data/WiFi always on.
   This also charges up fast with 20% to 100% time of ~1hr20mins.
4. I loved the camera setup. The 30x zoom is great. I was able to capture the great conjunction (of Saturn and Jupiter)
   
   
   
   But, after all it's typical Samsung! Increasing the saturation levels and artificially brightening the images (mostly of people's faces)

Have been busy with some or other things and I haven't used it's full potential. So, I will update here if/when I find anything interesting.

[Sheel]

Need help in locating my past payments on Samsung Pay application. I tried but I don't seem to find it. I have to go my linked bank account and check my statements from there.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by neelkumar

Now coming to the S20+, it's funny that this won't recognise my fingerprints either. Yes, I did scan my fingerprints and yes I have prints on my fingers.

Try registering each finger multiple times (example: register right index finger 4 times as 4 different fingers). My friends did this on their S10s and it worked well.