Many mobile app developers rely on in-app advertising to generate revenue. The vast majority of users put up with these ads if they are not particularly intrusive. However, many apps have started displaying shady lock screen ads recently and Google has finally decided to drop the banhammer on them. Such apps have now been banned from the Play Store.
Even popular apps like Peel, ES File Explorer, and Hotspot Shield VPN have relied on lock screen ads to generate revenue. These ads can be intrusive and aren’t really conducive to a good user experience.
Many have called on Google to address this problem and it’s finally doing that. The company has updated its developer monetization page to clearly highlight that unless the exclusive purpose of an app is that of a lockscreen, “apps may not introduce ads of features that monetize the locked display of a device.”
So apps that are described as file explorers, VPNs, camera apps, and more can no longer combine their major functions with that of a lock screen app that serves ads. To be clear, Google isn’t banning lock screen ads entirely. Developers still have the ability to create lock screen apps and they may serve ads as well.