Microsoft accused of spamming Android users with Office ads

Android users have probably been annoyed more than a few times with notifications from apps that keep popping up in the Android notification tray for things you really don't want to know and don't care about. You might expect shadier small firms to use the notification tray to spam you with advertising, but you might not expect one of the largest software firms in the world to do that. Microsoft has been accused of spamming Android users with advertisements trying to get them to use Office.

A user who has Office installed on his Nexus 6P including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint says that he doesn't use the apps but a few times per week. The image you see here is an advertisement that was sent to the user in the notification tray. This is something that is not only annoying for Microsoft to do, but advertising in the notification tray is prohibited by Google in the Play Store rules.

Another head scratcher is why would Microsoft be sending advertisements to users to try apps that they already have installed and are using? Adding to the confusion is that this particular user has an Office 365 subscription, meaning the ads that Microsoft is sending for apps that are already installed, the guy is also already paying for.

This is clearly a double fail. Microsoft won't make users happy with ads in the notifications tray to harass us, and when you already pay for and use the apps being advertised in this shady method the insult is all the more stark. Google also has some onus here; it needs to enforce the rules already in place considering these ads shouldn't have been run for anyone.

SOURCE: OSNews