UPDATE: The source has updated its story, admitting it may have made a mistake. Huawei said the following: “HUAWEI Ads is an ads platform provided by Huawei Services Co., Limited, a Huawei subsidiary based in Hong Kong, for advertisers to serve ads on HUAWEI and third-party apps”. This actually sounds like Huawei plans to offer a chance for advertisers to push system ads via EMUI, if / when the company decides to offer such a service. That may not happen soon, or at all, by the way. Huawei has to think about its place in the market at the moment, with the US ban and everything. Therefore, it probably won’t make this step anytime soon.
ORIGINAL STORY: It seems like ads may be coming to Huawei’s EMUI Android skin. EMUI is also known as Emotion UI, and it comes pre-installed on Huawei’s Android devices.
Up until now, EMUI did not include ads, but Huawei may be ready to change that. Do note that this information has not been confirmed per se, but one of the latest EMUI builds hints it may happen.
Huawei Ads may be a part of HMS on EMUI
MySmartPrice shared some screenshots online. One of their employees received an update on an unnamed Huawei device, which comes with the recently-unveiled Huawei Mobile Services (HMS).
HMS is here to replace GMS on Huawei devices, due to the US ban. That being said, one of the screenshots mentions the ‘Huawei Ads’ platform.
The T&C page reveals some information about Huawei Ads as well. It says that the personal data used for ads personalization is retained for one year from the time of collection.
This page also notes that such data is stored in the data centers located in Hong Kong and Singapore. If a user consent to it, Huawei Ads will also collect and process GPS information for “geographically relevant” ads.
Huawei also notes that such data may be processed by its local custom services located in various countries. The location of processing will be dependent on where you reside, of course.
The source does note that no ads have been spotted thus far. So, it is impossible to say where will these ads be served. Do note that this may be a Chinese build of EMUI, as HMS is not available on global EMUI just yet.
Huawei is expected to comment on this in the near future, especially if it plans to start offering ads. It is possible that these ads will be localized to some applications, though. They may even be localized to some regions, even.
Xiaomi is no stranger to providing ads in MIUI for its Chinese consumers
Xiaomi did something similar with MIUI a while back, and received a ton of negative feedback. The company realized that made a mistake, and tweaked the way it does things.
Do note that the global build of MIUI does not contain ads, though. So those of you who do not use Chinese builds do not have contact with ads whatsoever.
It remains to be seen how and where Huawei plans on using ads. It may not even affect the vast majority of you, or any of you, as nothing has been officially announced.
