I get the reason for there being Ads in the sync app. I don’t have the funds to pay for ultra and that’s also fine.
But what I find concerning is the type of ads I see. I live in Germany for clarification and most of what I see are websites acting like news sites (right leaning at times). When I accidentally tap on them my browser immediately blocks the website for unsafe practices on their end.
Now I really don’t mind the ads in apps if it’s the usual app ad, random products or Amazon type of things. But I hate it when every ad is a boomer ass clickbait ad about how solar energy is definitely worse than anything else.
This is my main complaint about sync right now and it might push me to stop using it again as the ads are also very frequent…
I dont think its Sync problem. You probably visited similar websites few times and now the ad service is serving you these kind of ads.
This is so far out of my interest of browsing habits I really doubt it. Unless the ad purposefully misuses the tagging system (or whatever ads use for the algorithm) this has to be random
Ad algorithms might be using more complicated analytic combinations than just “similar sites” as a qualifier. Maybe you’re a fan of a product or show (or combination thereof) that typically map to right-wing readers or likely converts.
If they’re getting (just making this up) a 5% click-throughs rate with this targeting vs 2% with just similar-site matching, then they probably don’t care about a high rate of views by left-wing users.
No, I get that shit from Google ads from time to time too, Google just doesn’t moderate advertisers at all! :/
The ads i see in apps are completely unrelated to sites I visit. There’s currently an obnoxious blinking one in an app both my wife and I use. We get the same ads at the same time.
My feed shows gambling apps 💀 (I hate gambling with a passion)
They’ve shown up for me to later which made me uninstall sync and go back to jerboa
Weirdly mine shows anti-gambling adverts.
“Boomer ass”??? Ageist, are we?
I keep forgetting boomer is an age group, it being the one my parents belong to…
To me, boomer is more of a mindset that ranges a lot. I know quite a few ppl my age with said mindset.
If I upset you by using this term in this negative manner I am sorry.
The developer is not responsible for the targeted ads users get AFAIK
The developer is responsible for putting ads in his app. Not saying I disagree with the sentiment behind your statement because it’s technically correct, but the developer has to take some degree of responsibility when they decide to open up their app to basically uncontrollable outside information being displayed to the users. Which is why ad-supported free versions of apps are a damned plague in my opinion. Would rather the free version was missing some functionality instead encouraging users to opt for Pro or Ultra. Unlocking features, not paying to remove ads that weren’t and aren’t on the Lemmy platform itself in the first place.
Of course he is. They can always set up their ads to avoid scammy clickbait shit. But those pay the most so this is what we get.
Block them. Google NextDNS, takes about 10 seconds to set up with a simple change in your phone’s DNS settings.
I didn’t know this trick, any downside to do this ?
as z4rk said
but I’d also like to add that you can use pi-hole instead on a local old computer
it gives the same functionality, but self-hosted
I use a pi-hole. This works great for all devices in your home network. But as soon as you use mobile data on your phone instead of your home WiFi, you no longer have these benefits.
you can use a local VPN server (wireguard) and always connect to it on your mobile devices
yeah, obviously leaving stuff to other companies like nextdns will always be more convenient, but now you have to trust them
The team running NextDNS gets a log of all sites your devices connects to, and we don’t get much information into how they are running the business.
On the upside, you also get a log of all the sites your devices connects to, and now you have multiple, easy ways to block what you want. Ads based on your choice of blocklists, brands (Samsung, Microsoft etc), Platforms (TikTok, Reddit, Snapchat etc.), categories (Cryptocurrency, Porn, Gambling, Dating etc.). It’s great!
You can turn off logging and set logging to be stored in Switzerland for example. You’ll have to trust the guys running it that they don’t still have access and can turn it over to authorities though.
Downside is you aren’t supporting the Dev. Can buy it if you want.
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Connect doesn’t have ads :3
How does this solve OP’s issue with using Sync? Neither does my toilet paper, but I wouldn’t recommend OP scrolled through that.
The options are ask for improvements, and then learn to tolerate the issue, mitigate it, or find an alternative, and an alternative isn’t a bad choice since that doesn’t necessarily mean it is a permanent choice. I’m sure that if the Sync developer can improve the situation, they will.
I love the phrase “boomer-ass clickbait”. Gonna have to work that into rotation somehow.
In really don’t get it, why use it? Good UI? Really, that’s it?
Sync was the best reddit app on an Android tablet and is the best lemmy app on that device as well. Lots of customization available.
Ok so why not just donate to the Foss apps instead? The huge amounts that went to sync would have made any Foss app at least just as good.
You do you, I just don’t get it.
Maybe? But I know what I’m getting with Sync. Donations to FOSS don’t guarantee anything.
And really, once we start talking about donating to free software with the expectation of specific returns, we’re basically talking about paying for software. If a specific set of FOSS is only good when people pay for it, there’s a problem with the incentivization to work on that set of software.
I’ve been a pro user for a decade. I know how to customize it the way I like. It just feels right for me. Also, we asked him to make it.
Yes. It’s by far the best Lemmy app there is, UI/UX-wise
To be fair there is not much else in a lemmy app so… yes?
Much smoother experience for me coming from Jerboa. While I appreciate that Jerboa is an open source app. Until it gets significant improvement, I will use Sync. Even with ads and closed source code base, I am happy to make that trade off for now.
Trying it out right now and it’s much more stable, smooth and snappy than any other client I’ve tried.
My feed was full of “How to get pregnant” ads. And not the porn type, but the medical faceless mannequin type.
Not sure if I successfully blocked big tech to spy on me and they have no idea what to offer me…or they know somethinh (•_•)
there is a button under privacy to revoche the gdpr consent.
i pressed it and i don’t have any ads (yet) just gray boxes
Same here. Thought it was just bugged
NextDNS is free, and blocks all the ads on Sync as well as most others elsewhere
doesn’t hide the empty spaces though, but oh well
I am using the non-rooted AdAway blocker and I am not seeing any empty space, in case you want to try.
EDIT: Or maybe I am not being served adds because my location, so I cannot be 100% sure about the spaces.
I’m on rooted Adaway. No ads but spaces are there. Not a lot, though, so it’s easy to overlook.
Same setup, I hardly doubt his setup works better than this.
I’m running on a rooted android, magisk, lsposed and minminguard as chain to block ads and remove the ad spaces. I still have to see one ad I didn’t want. (And those in games for ‘goodies’ just run unwatched)
I’ll check if sync has ads here, but I doubt I’ll see them.
About the type of ads, no app developer has any control over what is shown, as they offerl the space to ad providers and they select the junk they place there.
Edit: Installed sync, added to lsposed list to run the minminguard module on, opened it and ‘sponsored content’ blocks, but no ads. (Saw one ad when I opened sync without the lsposed config change) I’m guessing I need to restart the device to get rid of the blocks which should hold the ads. (Or those blocks are standard and the regular content is replaced by sponsored content)
Edit 2: those sponsored content blocks are just standard blocks with either the ad or “sponsored content” as text. Uninstalled it again, as I prefer Liftoff.
Are you using another adblocker?
I installed minminguard because of your comment, but I can’t see it is helping at all, I had AdAway rooted version before so I never saw ads but the empty squares.
So both working have the same effect for me, is there any reason to have them both running?
I even enabled URL filtering but it still reports that no ads are being blocked.
I installed minminguard because of your comment, but I can’t see it is helping at all, I had AdAway rooted version before so I never saw ads but the empty squares.
Minminguard is an xposed module that I run via lsposed (xposed development halted, lsposed is a magisk module that needs you to activate minminguard for the app. (and then in minminguard either add the app to the blacklist or use the whitelist and don’t add it there) It’s a lot of hoops you need to jump trough.
However, the empty squares stay even with minminguard, as the app uses the same ‘message block’ for posts and ads. (at least that’s how it looks) WIth both running, it could well be possible that adaway already filtered before minminguard. Here it also showed 0 ads blocked (no other ad blocker), but I saw already several empty ad blocks. (so that counter isn’t to accurate) You could try with adaway temporary disabled to see what it does (and check if you missed one of the hoops).
I tried with AdAway off and using minminguard and now I got ads 😅
I think it is safe to assume it is doing absolutely nothing then.
I have it on in Lsposed and “System Framework” selected, I don’t know if I am doing anything wrong.
I have:
- Magisk (26.1) with zygisk enabled
- Zygisk - LSposed v1.8.6 (6712) installed and enabled in Magisk
- MinMinGuard 2.2.0 (‘fixed’ version from xda) installed and enabled in LSposed for all apps via hide uncheck everything and then active for every app I have (you can just activate for the app you want to test with, but ymmv, maybe it uses a system app to get the ads)
- in MinMinGuard I’ve used the whitelist option with 2 games activated in the list as I want to have ads there to get more goodies
It could be the version you use. I totally forgot I had a ‘fixed’ version for Android 11+ (it’s been running almost a year without issues/ads getting trough).
Oh yeah, that definitely should be the case why it is not working for me, I am using the GitHub version which is 2.1.1…
But I think now I’m confused did you actually manage to get rid of the Sync ads blocks?
Or you have the block with the “empty” ads?
In the Lsposed app within the MinMinGuard section you have selected Sync for Lemmy there too or only within the MinMinGuard settings?
I am a bit lost in your third point, maybe can I see some screenshots?
You can setup the type of ads you want or do not want on your Google account. Which will impact sync ads since it uses Google Ads
Try installing an ad blocker. For example, Adguard is pretty good, but must be downloaded from their website instead of from Google Play (ad blockers that can block ads system-wide are not allowed on Google Play). The are also various dns-based ad blockers such as nextdns, which can block ads in apps as long as you can change your device’s DNS.
I`ve heard those system wide ad blockers got people blocked on other apps that have ads like tiktok or instagram… while I try not to use them as often and switch to fediverse platforms over time, 99% of my social interactions sadly happen on those corperate owned platforms still
I use a program called Blockada on my phone. (get it from their website, not from the Play Store) Blockada runs a VPN locally on your device to filter all ad traffic from your data usage.
You can whitelist specific site requests that are getting blocked, or whitelist whole apps to allow ads in them specifically.
I never saw ads in Sync (I presume because of my system-wide ad blocking), but I went ahead and purchased ad-free to support the continued development of Sync.
As someone who has been using AdGuard for years, there are a ton of settings. You can select which apps to whitelist if needed, while blocking everything else. You can put in any exceptions you may need. I had a couple that refused to work that I have to allow through. Make sure you get it from their website if you want to try it out. They even have a master toggle you can add on the notification drawer thingy if you need it.
I don’t use anything Facebook or CCP related, so I am unable to attest to any claims of being banned from using adblockers, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying an adfree life. I can’t stand ads and seeing them stresses me out.
Here is how the screen looks like if you need to modify settings for a specific app:
Toggle:
