Pocket playgrounds show ads for people who paid for an advertising free application

The pocket crew is declining to display ads for old users who promised an advertising -free experience. The first reports began to appear in early September in the CSTS pocket Support Forum and Subreddit. The case is a mistake, according to Molinig, CEO of Pocket Casts’s Paterts Automattic, and will be corrected.

Pocket Casts was launched as a purchase application only in 2010, where one -time download fee was imposed up to $ 10, depending on the operating system and the platform. The service later Convert into a format on subscription And made the application available for free in 2019. After a violent reaction from users, the company gave anyone to pay the web or desktop applications before changing the prices Free access To Pocket Casts Plus, an excellent subscription service.

The app was obtained by Automattic in 2021, and the membership of the “Pocket Champion” was renamed in August 2024. The support page says that the brand “will not change anything about your membership” and does not mention any ads. However, some users on these free subscriptions are watching ads, and they are directed to pay the $ 40 annual fees to remove them.

He said, “I just want the ads to disappear – I still don’t need other features.” One user in the pocket forum throws. “This change makes me feel that you are trying to increase your transfer rate by making the primary product worse.”

In the same forum, a Actress Pocket Officer said The only way to remove the banner ads is to pay the price of a plus subscription, and that they were presented to “maintaining continuous work and maintaining the application.” However, this contradicts a statement issued by Mullenweg, which says ads that appear on life accounts are a mistake, and that the company is working to repair them.

“Anyone paid the price of pocket devices, even before getting them automatic, not to see ads,” Molinig said in a Hacker news string. “I do not believe in” lifelong “purchases, and we do not create new purchases in Automatic, but we have honored that people who paid once for pocket receiving when they were arising with what we call a” heroes “account, which is a lifelong, for you are in a deal of anything else.”

There are only a few thousand pocket members for life, according to Molinig, adding that “it seems better to try to make it a gift more than trying to deport people to what is actually a sustainable business model.” We contacted the pocket to comment.