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Microsoft Will Stop Spamming Android Users With Office Ads In The Notification Tray (betanews.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via BetaNews: The notification tray in Android serves a very specific purpose. There's a clue in the name -- and it's nothing to do with advertising. Android user Thom Holwerda was upset this week when Microsoft Office for Android started to spam him with ads for apps he already had installed. There are many questions here, one of which is why is Microsoft ignoring Google's guidelines and using the notification tray to display ads? Thom, from the website OSnews, found that the copy of Word he had installed on his Nexus 6P was spamming him with ads for Excel and Powerpoint -- which he was already using. Mark Wilson from BetaNews contacted Microsoft and they said, "Our team is actively investigating the occurrences of these notifications." After pressing further into the issue, a Microsoft spokesperson said, "Microsoft is deeply committed to ensuring that we maintain the best possible experience for our customers in addition to complying with all applicable policies. We have taken the action to turn off these notifications. This update will be reflected in the coming days." In other semi-related news, users can now remove the 260-character path length limit in the Windows 10 build 14352.
"Microsoft is deeply committed to ensuring that we maintain the best possible experience for our customers in addition to complying with all applicable policies. "
Uhoh, so that means they won't quit spamming you in the Notification Center, and clicking the close X will instead take you to the play store page for office.
Likely they will make sure there are 10-20 chime reminder sounds that will play too whenever the ad spam is onscreen.
After the next update they will raise he price of their apps and install malware to open the play store and purchase office apps for you again all silently in the background.
People don't like being spammed with ads in any notification tray. Learn your lesson, Microsoft. This applies to GWX every bit as much as it applies to Office.
One of the beauties of Android?
You can just "turn off notifications" on a per-app basis. It's literally like one press-hold and one click from any notification you see.