Google adds another place to put ads with their April 2023 Google System Updates. While it brings useful updates including Wear updates to improve battery life, improved privacy, and stability for Auto, PC, and Android phones, the update also includes a few ways to push ads to consumers through the Play Store.
According to the changes posted on its support page, Google rolled out new features to help users discover the apps and games they love. It also writes, phone users will see suggestions for limited-time events and sponsored suggestions next to past searches while starting a new search. You can observe this behavior without any user input, just after tapping on the search bar inside the Play Store.
According to a few users on Telegram, the Google Play Store is starting to show ads for apps in the search screen.
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) April 25, 2023
Is anyone else seeing this? I"ve only heard two users report this so far. pic.twitter.com/j32RpBIWBq
While the Play Store is filled with ads in every nook and cranny, the only screen without any ads was the overlaying search bar with past searches. Besides ads, it can also show useful highlights for apps and games. These banners will disappear once shown and usually doesn"t show a second time.
This update is being pushed out to users with the Google System Updates April 2023 and Google Play Store v35.0 onwards.
Via: 9to5Google