Report Reveals Apple Employees Internally Unhappy With Plans to Show More Ads to iPhone Users

A new report has revealed internal disagreement within Apple, causing some employees who work on the company's ads business to raise concerns that showing more ads to iPhone users ruins the premium experience that's been long offered to its customers, The Information reports.

App Store Ads
The lengthy report by The Information takes a deep dive into how Apple's ads team operates and internal concerns that the company's already growing ads business is going too far. According to the report, for example, Apple's ads salespeople are forbidden from using specific keywords when talking about the company's ads business. Salespeople should use "audience refinement" instead of saying "targeting," "platform" instead of "algorithm," and "competitor keywords" and "brand defenses" instead of "conquesting."

An Apple spokesperson, responding to the list of forbidden words, told The Information that the company wants employees to use language that is appropriate to Apple's offerings and that terms such as "targeting" do not apply since Apple doesn't let advertisers target specific users. Apple does not allow advertisers to target a demographic of less than 5,000 users to safeguard user privacy, according to the company.

While publicly, Apple displays a unified front on ads, especially those in the App Store meant to help developers gain more users and customers discover more apps, internally, employees are less than satisfied with the current approach. In internal chatrooms, at least seven employees who worked on Apple's ads team voiced concerns that the company is going too far in its ads business and will damage the premium experience of using an ‌iPhone‌. The report reveals that in 2018, Apple had plans to show users ads in Spotlight search on iOS, but it was reportedly abandoned after possible internal backlash.

Some managers within Apple's ads department previously pushed salespeople to pitch ad opportunities to different companies using keywords that were less relevant to their apps but that were less expensive than other keywords, according to the report. The requests from managers often made salespeople uncomfortable, adding to the fact that Apple's ads team did not have access to contact information or financial details about developers on the ‌App Store‌, alienating them further.

In the last few weeks, developers, customers, and critics of Apple have all voiced disapproval of the company's plans to expand its ads footprint in the App Store. Reports also suggest Apple plans to introduce ads in Apple Maps and Apple TV+. Even with the expansion in ads, Apple has no ambition to grow its ads business to the size of Meta or Google, according to a person familiar with the matter cited by the report.

But inside Apple there doesn't currently seem to be much appetite for goals that big. One person familiar with Apple's ad business said the company doesn’t harbor ambitions to compete at the same level as Meta and Google in digital advertising, nor does it plan to build an advertising network similar to those of its rivals that would serve ads to users outside its own apps and services. The person said ad executives are pleased with revenue growth based on Apple's existing ad spots and don’t plan to significantly increase the number of ads on iPhones to meet growth targets.

In the meantime, Apple has paused ads on the App Store for specific categories after a botched roll-out last month, and the company has not formalized plans to expand ads into other services. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple's advertising chief Todd Teresi wants to more than double Apple's current revenue from its ads business to $10 billion annually, up from the current $4 billion.

Popular Stories

iOS 26

Everything New in iOS 26.1 Beta 1

Monday September 22, 2025 12:44 pm PDT by
Apple released the first beta of iOS 26.1 today, just a week after launching iOS 26. iOS 26.1 mainly adds new languages to Apple Intelligence, but there are a few other features that are worth knowing about. New Apple Intelligence Languages Apple Intelligence is now available in Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Portugal), Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (Traditional), and Vietnamese. AirPo...
apple tv 4k new orange

Next Apple TV Expected to Launch This Year With These New Features

Monday September 22, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
The next Apple TV is expected to be released later this year, and a handful of new features and changes have been rumored for the device. Below, we recap what to expect from the next Apple TV, according to rumors. Likely Features N1 Chip With Wi-Fi 7 Last year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the next Apple TV would be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, which is...
Apple Intelligence General Feature 2

iOS 26.1 Adds New Apple Intelligence Languages and Expands AirPods Live Translation

Monday September 22, 2025 11:15 am PDT by
With iOS 26.1, Apple Intelligence is gaining support for additional languages, including Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Portugal), Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (Traditional), and Vietnamese. Apple announced plans to expand the languages that can be used with Apple Intelligence last year, and now the added language support is here. Apple Intelligence is now available in the following...
iPhone 17 Pro and Air N1 Feature

Some iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone Air Users Experiencing Intermittent Wi-Fi Issue

Monday September 22, 2025 8:44 am PDT by
Apple's latest iPhone models launched on Friday, and some early adopters of the devices are experiencing intermittent Wi-Fi issues. Affected customers say Wi-Fi connectivity periodically cuts out on the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air, with hundreds of comments about the issue posted across the MacRumors Forums, Reddit, and the Apple Support Community over the...
Apple Foldable Thumb

Foldable iPhone Like 'Two Titanium iPhone Airs' Joined at the Hinge

Monday September 22, 2025 2:16 am PDT by
Next year's rumored foldable iPhone will showcase an ultra-thin design resembling "two titanium iPhone Airs side-by-side," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Writing in the Q&A section of his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman says Apple's first foldable device will be "super thin and a design achievement," combining Apple's thinnest iPhone form factor with cutting-edge folding...
iPhone 17 Pro USB C Port

iPhone 17 Pro Max's USB-C Charging Speeds Tested With Apple Chargers

Monday September 22, 2025 7:29 am PDT by
The website ChargerLAB has tested the iPhone 17 Pro Max's USB-C charging speeds with a variety of Apple's chargers, from 18W to 140W. The device reached a peak charging speed of around 36W with the following Apple chargers:40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max 61W USB-C Power Adapter 67W USB-C Power Adapter 70W USB-C Power Adapter 96W USB-C Power Adapter 140W USB-C Power AdapterFor...
iPhone 17 Pro and Air Feature

Two iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air Colors Appear to Scratch More Easily

Friday September 19, 2025 10:02 am PDT by
As reported by Bloomberg today, some of the new iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air models on display at Apple Stores today are already scratched and scuffed. French blog Consomac also reported on this topic. The scratches appear to be most prominent on models with darker finishes, including the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max in Deep Blue, and the iPhone Air in Space Black. Images Credit: Consoma ...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds First Betas of iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1

Monday September 22, 2025 10:05 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with the first betas of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The new betas are the first updates to the iOS, iPadOS, macOS 26, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS releases that came out last week. The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going...
iPhone 17 Pro Colors

Skipped the iPhone 17 Pro? Here's What is Rumored for iPhone 18 Pro

Tuesday September 23, 2025 8:55 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are still a year away, there are already a few rumors about the devices that offer an early look ahead. Below, we have recapped some of the early iPhone 18 Pro rumors so far. This story was published previously, and it has been updated to reflect the latest rumors. Many early rumors prove to be true, but nothing is confirmed yet, and Apple's...

Top Rated Comments

LeeW Avatar
37 months ago
I mean a longstanding view held by many Apple users is paying a premium for the lack of ads. It's not a step in the right direction.
Score: 89 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Realityck Avatar
37 months ago

A new report has revealed internal disagreement within Apple, causing some employees who work on the company's ads business to raise concerns that showing more ads to iPhone users ruins the premium experience that's been long offered to its customers, The Information ('https://www.theinformation.com/articles/inside-apples-love-hate-relationship-with-its-4-billion-ads-business?rc=583sff') reports.
That’s good news, as I can’t stand ads. I don’t mind the occasional email from Apple pitching their services, but placing ads in the new weather app for example is just wrong.
Score: 73 Votes (Like | Disagree)
t0rqx Avatar
37 months ago
Does not take a genius to figure that out. No ambition to grow as META or Google? Money is driving the company now. This is Sculley 2.0 and we all know how that went.
Score: 48 Votes (Like | Disagree)
singularity0993 Avatar
37 months ago
Incredibly shortsighted decision. Can’t believe the most valuable company in the world is still aiming for fast money.
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)
thosmatthews Avatar
37 months ago
More ads that were intrinsic to the OS would be one of the few things to lever me out of the Apple ecosystem.
Score: 41 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ashdelacroix Avatar
37 months ago
There should be zero ads on a platform sold to us as being the very opposite of the revenue model used by the likes of Google and Facebook. Apple needs to be reminded of its core values. Apple is now fully in the grip of the operations division rather than the design division. No wonder the design team is losing people. Jony Ive's departure is making more and more sense.
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)