On Tuesday, Apple announced that companies can advertise their apps on other app store pages by placing their icon in the “you might also like” section. Almost immediately, developers began showing examples of recommended gambling app ads under their apps.
Like MacRumors reporter Joe Rossignol notes that Apple hasn’t made clear how long the pause will last or whether it will make any changes to the policy based on how the initial rollout has gone down. It’s also unclear which other ad categories are paused.
Apple’s rules for advertising in the App Store list apps related to gambling, alcohol, dating, and the pharmaceutical and medical industries as “restricted,” meaning there are special rules about where they can appear. The restrictions are mainly about laws, not what is tasty or potentially harmful; the site says gambling apps are “prohibited or restricted in some countries and regions,” but says nothing about the audience they may be serving.
How Apple goes about it could be very important for the future of the iPhone. Reports indicate that it plans to expand its ads beyond the App Store to apps like Maps, Podcasts and Books. Imagine seeing a pop-up casino when you search for addiction recovery centers, or erotic novels when you search for books on how to deal with porn addiction.
The good news for Apple is that there are other companies working on this problem that it can borrow ideas from if it’s not too proud to do so. Google, for example, allows you to limit the number of ads you see on potentially sensitive topics such as alcohol, gambling, dating, pregnancy and weight loss. Apple talks a big game about how the App Store is a safe place to get software for your phone, and (despite the many ways it’s historically failed to prove it) it should maintain that appearance. But can it do this while also trying to show us ads when we open its apps?