iOS 17.0.2 | Apple using StandBy as an Advertising Platform?

[jwns]

I woke up this morning to what I can only describe as an advertisement placed in the widget side of my StandBy screen.

Until this morning, standby has only ever shown me my schedule. I haven’t intentionally customized it. It is essentially in the default mode that came with iOS17.

Has anyone else seen or experiences this change in behavior?
Does anyone know anything about this?

If this is what I think this is, Apple is overstepping its boundaries.

Edit: I’ve since learned how to customize the right hand widget. I never set it to the ‘App Store’ widget. My device used to show my calendar by default.

 

[Morac]

Standby widgets are just the same as stack widgets on the Lock Screen. You probably have it set to suggest widgets and it picked to show the App Store widget.

You can turn that off while in Standby by tapping and holding on the widget and the turning off suggest.

 

[jwns]

Standby widgets are just the same as stack widgets on the Lock Screen. You probably have it set to suggest widgets and it picked to show the App Store widget.

You can turn that off while in Standby by tapping and holding on the widget and the turning off suggest.

Once I learned how to interact with the StandBy screen, I observed the “suggested” toggle was in the off (dimmed/grey) position and ‘App Store’ was the active widget. I did not make either of these configurations.
I’ve had the iPhone 15 running iOS 17 from 22SEP.

Every day before today the phone showed my calendar. The unwelcome ad this morning prompted me to explore the feature. The macrumors article on StandBy helped. I’ve since removed the App Store from the widget list.

 

[rorschach]

Yeah, it's the App Store widget, but it is an ad. Doesn't have to be "hot singles in your area"-type spam to be an ad. I think this particular widget shouldn't ever be "suggested".

But sadly this sort of thing is creeping into iOS more and more. I've gotten ads for stores nearby on my Home Screen, in Spotlight, even on my Lock Screen a couple times. And they aren't push notifications from apps I have. They're "Siri Suggestions", which can be turned off if you manage to find the setting (it's under "App Clips" in Siri & Search)...but they should be opt in. And then there's the ads in the TV app that they put above my Up Next, which aren't even personalized based on what I watch...or even what I'm already subscribed to, because I get ads for movies and shows that I need to subscribe to a service to watch.

 

[xaxik]

Thank you so much. I was unpleasantly surprised by the App Store with advertisements today. Thanks to your post, I was able to quickly resolve and eliminate it.