What Samsung's New Refrigerator Ads Will Look Like (And How To Turn Them Off)

It was only a matter of time: Samsung's Family Hub smart refrigerators are finally getting on-screen advertisements. Starting in November 2025, a new software rollout will introduce ads to select Family Hub refrigerator models in the United States. They'll be enabled by default, but Samsung will actually let you turn them off. The advertisements will show up via a new widget on the Family Hub refrigerator's Cover screen (what Samsung calls the main display that wakes to greet you when you walk up to the fridge).

Interestingly, the ads won't appear when the refrigerator's displaying Art, Album, or certain Daily Board themed displays. But if you want to opt out of ads on your smart fridge, you'll have to go to Settings, tap Advertisements, and then toggle off Cover screen ads. This gets rid of the new widget's ads altogether. With this feature toggled off, you won't have to see any promotional content anymore.

The widget will rotate through four main types of content: news, weather forecasts, calendar events, and ads. The screen will change automatically every ten seconds, but you can also manually swipe to move past the ad and go to the next slide. It's all part of a broader software update that Samsung rolled out in late October for all U.S.-based Family Hub fridges with 21.5-inch or 32-inch displays. Smaller models won't be getting the ads with this particular update, but who knows what sort of ad-supported future these smart fridges might hold.

For some indeterminate amount of time, the smart fridge ads will only promote Samsung's products and services (such as replacement refrigerator water filters or various SmartThings accessories). That's not to say that future promotions won't eventually go beyond Samsung's product line, though. From the sound of it, Samsung's using its own stuff to test the waters before opening the doors to other brands.

The ads themselves are going to be relatively small, only showing up in one single tile of the multi-tile widget rather than filling the fridge's entire display. That doesn't necessarily make it easier to stomach, especially when you consider the fact that Samsung's Family Hub line ranges from about $1,899 to $3,499. Slapping ads on a major household appliance that's already one of the most expensive Samsung products ever? It's bound to spark some controversy.

If it's any consolation, the ads won't be personalized or targeted. In the fine print, Samsung insists its Family Hub refrigerators don't collect personal information and don't track you. Still, it's destined to raise questions about how the bait-and-switch of introducing ads after purchase could potentially undermine people's trust in Samsung and its Family Hub line — even with its option to opt-out. No wonder it's earned the title of worst refrigerator.