Samsung says its smart fridges will not display full-screen ads, you can still turn them off [U]

Samsung is making good on its promise to bring ads to users with smart fridges, with reports that they’re beginning to take up the entire display on some Family Hub appliances. For now, Samsung makes it possible to turn them off.

Samsung made an announcement in late October that its lineup of display-laden smart fridges would soon passively show ads. The company’s refrigerators come equipped with displays in various sizes that run Samsung’s Family Hub software, not too dissimilar in design to One UI.

Update 11/14: Samsung has commented on the image posted to Reddit, noting that the ad format shown on the smart fridge display is not one that would appear over the cover screen. Any ad shown would be limited to the cover screen widget, which displays news, weather, and calendar events. Those slides rotate every 10 seconds or so, and an ad is looped in around every 40 seconds.

It appears that the ad shown in the Reddit photo is of the fridge’s Samsung Internet app. Through that, an ad seems to have shown up organically through a third-party website.

Samsung notes that full-screen ads do not appear as part of these recent software updates, and users shouldn’t expect to see ads that take up the entire display.

While the device is idle, the cover screen takes over like a screensaver. This screen was limited to personal albums, artwork, and daily news before a recent software update changed that. Now, the cover screen is showing full-screen ads that greet homeowners when they walk into their kitchens.

Samsung noted the cover screen widget would be responsible for showing ads that take up little space. Recent images appear to say otherwise, though those have since been dismissed as separate from the ad pilot (see article revision).

There have been reports of ads appearing more frequently and widely, as more users install the updated version of the refrigerator software. The general reception to Samsung’s update has not been good, with many on social sites swearing off Samsung’s appliances altogether.

Samsung makes it possible to turn these ads off, for the time being. The process is dead simple and should eliminate ads from appearing in your kitchen.

How to disable ads on Samsung Family Hub smart fridges

1. On the smart fridge, find the Settings menu.
2. Find and tap Advertisements.
3. Hit Coverscreen Ads and toggle it off.

Samsung also suggests that users set their cover screen content to artwork and albums only. In that scenario, ads don’t appear in the bottom fifth of the display. Of course, the safest way to disable ads is to turn them off altogether.

This article was originally posted on 11/14.