Apple is about to introduce full screen ads to your iOS device
Apple has formally announced two new ad formats for the iAd platform that will make ignoring advertising harder than ever. Developers can now include full-screen interstitial banner ads and pre-roll video ads within their apps. Thanks to the sizes of these ads, each will take over your entire screen when working.
This is a huge shift in the aggression of Apple's in-app advertising. While iOS apps have featured full screen ads before, they normally needed to be activated by the user hitting a ad bar or reaching the end of a level. While they'll be slightly annoying, the interstitial ads are nothing compared to how annoying pre-roll video ads will be.
These videos can be set to 15, 30, or 60 seconds in length. We'll have to wait until these ads are formally introduced to discover if they're skippable. Hopefully there will be a way around the ads, or we're sitting on the edge of a future where users will have to watch a full minute-long advertisement at the end of every level of a game. Hey, at least it will make the time pass faster while we're waiting 15 minutes for a new life in Candy Crush.
You can read the newly updated Apple guide to implementing iAds in iOS apps here. As readers, what do you think? Will the new ad types negatively or positively impact the user experience on iOS devices? Let us know in the comments.
