AquaMail Forum
English - Android => General Discussion => Topic started by: StR on September 19, 2017, 06:26:31 pm
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The recent surprise (https://www.aqua-mail.com/forum/index.php?topic=6078.0) with sudden (and, arguably, rather invasive) appearance of ads in the free version of this great app pushed me to write this post.
I have been a loyal user of Aquamail for over 3 years. Moreover, I've been a vocal evangelist of this app, bringing tens (that I know), if not hundreds of new users. This is because for all this time, I've considered Aquamail being the best e-mail app for Android (and one of the best apps for Android overall).
But at this point, I am very concerned about the future (and the present!) of Aquamail. My trust in Aquamail is shaken.
I understand the necessity of the changes that would provide MobiSystems with the return on investment and would allow supporting further development of this app. So far, we've seen introduction of analytics, price increase (doubling), and now sudden appearance of ads. The problem is not in that these changes have been made, but how they've been done: All of those were done silently. And that's the biggest concern.
How many more "skeletons" are we going to find in Aquamail? Are we going to get any surprises for the paid version? Or, (I am fearing), do we have something already in it; something that will show its ugly head at any moment?
Today's devices contain lots of personal information. Installing an app with many invasive permissions requires the owner to trust the app developer. They became a part of our intimate life.So, many people look carefully at the reputation of the apps and the developers/owners.
Kostya has built a reputation for this app (and for himself). His transparent and honest approach has earned him and the app the trust.
From what I read from other people, your, MobiSystem, reputation had some problems beforehand.{^} The fact that Kostya remained the chief developer opened a credit line of trust for MobiSystems (in relation to Aquamail) from the long-term Aquamail users. How long that trust credit line will last really depends on the actions of MobiSystems.
Please note, that even though these ads are not experienced by Aquamail paid users, - the sneaky way they have been introduced is a dark mark on the reputation.
I am certain that all long-term Aquamail users would like to see Aquamail thriving. I am sure that MobiSystems wants the same. (You didn't buy this app to crash the competition.)
And one of the necessary conditions for that is the continued trust. For that, transparency about policies and practices affecting the users, and changes in them, is of paramount importance.
Look at the demise of previously great and popular apps, such as QuickPic, ES File Explorer, - after those were purchased by companies with a questionable reputation, and sneaky and invasive changes were introduced. I am calling on you, MobiSystems, to prevent that from happening with Aquamail!
I invite other users of Aquamail to chime in here.
I hope this MobiSystem's leadership will be smart to recognize this as an opportunity to prevent the disaster and save this app's reputation.
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{^} This 9-month-old posting (https://www.aqua-mail.com/forum/index.php?topic=5102.msg30766#msg30766) from @iceman.jkh, talking about ads and nag screens was about the past, but now, it sounds very visionary.
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Wonder if Kostya intentionally picked this time to go on vacation- let the storm pass (as it were). Like @StR I have tremendous respect for Kostya and his honesty and complete transparency. Indeed, on occasion I thought he approach was one of a lab scientist interested in pure development and indeed proud to demonstrate his work. Thus wondering how he would be able to turn it into the profitable venture that it was designed to be. Come MobiSystems, a hard core commercial company who could turn AquaMail into a good midsized business. Sadly their approach has been anything that is customer oriented- a very poor begining from a marketing point of view. Post that, the least said the better.
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Exactly, I don't trust them at all anymore. Wouldn't be surprised if they are selling all our info to the Kremlin as well. On to one of the other 65,000 email clients available.
The recent surprise (https://www.aqua-mail.com/forum/index.php?topic=6078.0) with sudden (and, arguably, rather invasive) appearance of ads in the free version of this great app pushed me to write this post.
I have been a loyal user of Aquamail for over 3 years. Moreover, I've been a vocal evangelist of this app, bringing tens (that I know), if not hundreds of new users. This is because for all this time, I've considered Aquamail being the best e-mail app for Android (and one of the best apps for Android overall).
But at this point, I am very concerned about the future (and the present!) of Aquamail. My trust in Aquamail is shaken.
I understand the necessity of the changes that would provide MobiSystems with the return on investment and would allow supporting further development of this app. So far, we've seen introduction of analytics, price increase (doubling), and now sudden appearance of ads. The problem is not in that these changes have been made, but how they've been done: All of those were done silently. And that's the biggest concern.
How many more "skeletons" are we going to find in Aquamail? Are we going to get any surprises for the paid version? Or, (I am fearing), do we have something already in it; something that will show its ugly head at any moment?
Today's devices contain lots of personal information. Installing an app with many invasive permissions requires the owner to trust the app developer. They became a part of our intimate life.So, many people look carefully at the reputation of the apps and the developers/owners.
Kostya has built a reputation for this app (and for himself). His transparent and honest approach has earned him and the app the trust.
From what I read from other people, your, MobiSystem, reputation had some problems beforehand.{^} The fact that Kostya remained the chief developer opened a credit line of trust for MobiSystems (in relation to Aquamail) from the long-term Aquamail users. How long that trust credit line will last really depends on the actions of MobiSystems.
Please note, that even though these ads are not experienced by Aquamail paid users, - the sneaky way they have been introduced is a dark mark on the reputation.
I am certain that all long-term Aquamail users would like to see Aquamail thriving. I am sure that MobiSystems wants the same. (You didn't buy this app to crash the competition.)
And one of the necessary conditions for that is the continued trust. For that, transparency about policies and practices affecting the users, and changes in them, is of paramount importance.
Look at the demise of previously great and popular apps, such as QuickPic, ES File Explorer, - after those were purchased by companies with a questionable reputation, and sneaky and invasive changes were introduced. I am calling on you, MobiSystems, to prevent that from happening with Aquamail!
I invite other users of Aquamail to chime in here.
I hope this MobiSystem's leadership will be smart to recognize this as an opportunity to prevent the disaster and save this app's reputation.
------
{^} This 9-month-old posting (https://www.aqua-mail.com/forum/index.php?topic=5102.msg30766#msg30766) from @iceman.jkh, talking about ads and nag screens was about the past, but now, it sounds very visionary.
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I haven't been using AM all that long - perhaps a month or two. I tried the free version for less than a week and then bought the pro version. I was helped at the very beginning by a great forum with helpful and responsive members. And of course, Kostya.
While I'm not impacted by the ads, I agree that it should have been announced first. I would assume that there were more users of the free version than of the paid. At least until yesterday. With way in which the advertisements were implemented in the app, I think Mobi blew their best shot at getting new/free users to purchase the pro version. I don't blame the users who are pissed off and moving on to another mail client. I would be doing the same thing if I was still using the free version.
@Mobi - you've got a PR issue on your hands right now because you just threw the change at your users, with no notice whatsoever. You could probably salvage some of them by offering them a further discount from the current $5.00. You really should step up and make this right with a further discount to current users who want to go pro. You also need to admit your mistake.
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Written in another thread, too - but did not receive any response by support:
Our team puts great effort in developing, testing and supporting the app.
And what about "communicating"?
Why not show an announcement some weeks before about this at same place instead of just suddenly switching into an adware app?
Users would have be informed about your intentions (and would have thought about purchasing pro) instead of being irritated and asking here.
1-star Ratings in play store already show the upcoming shitstorm, which you could have avoid.
Edit:
Today's and yesterday's feedback in (german) play store is awful...
Unfortunately this seems to be the next step to destroy an previous excellent app. Bummer.
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Unfortunately this seems to be the next step to destroy an previous excellent app. Bummer.
It will be abandonware by this time next year. Another app ruined by greed and incompetence. Nice job Mobisystems!
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I just discovered yet another change (related) change that happened very quietly: Privacy policy has changed.
Here is the current version (http://www.aqua-mail.com/?page_id=1878).
Here is the version circa June 6, 2017 (https://web.archive.org/web/20170606151816/http://www.aqua-mail.com/?page_id=1878) on WayBackMachine.
The notable change is that the "No ads" section is gone now!
No ads
Neither (free or paid) version of Aqua Mail has in-app ads. Many ad networks will try to identify and track the user for purposes of ad targeting. Not the case with Aqua Mail.
(underlined by me)
First of all, all reputable companies announce (notify) users of the privacy policy changes.
I am not a legal expert, but e.g. this discussion (https://termsfeed.com/blog/update-notice-legal-agreements/) might indicate that a lack of such a notice (prior to the change!) could be a legal violation in some jurisdictions (e.g. California Business and Professions Code section 22947 and following and/or Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003 - California Business and Professions Code sections 22575-22579).
But in any case, it is accepted as a good business practice to inform users about policy changes.
Second, removal of this passage raises a question: Does it mean that now Aquamail users might be tracked through the ads (e.g. by "ad networks")?
Even if there is nothing malicious happening, - how can we believe that now? What and why were they trying to hide?
MobiSystems, have you realized yet what trouble you've got yourself into by doing this sneaky change?!
Argh!...
PS. I am still puzzled: "Why?!"
Why did MobiSystem had to do it this way? What did the person making that decision think? To me, this behavior is akin that of a 5-year-old who thinks his parents might not notice that he ate the entire box of chocolate candies.
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@MobiSystems
@Kostya
A life to grow, a day to die...
This one will be my very last post (no. 2285) in the forum. Bye and good luck...
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{^} This 9-month-old posting (https://www.aqua-mail.com/forum/index.php?topic=5102.msg30766#msg30766) from @iceman.jkh, talking about ads and nag screens was about the past, but now, it sounds very visionary.
There were criticisms of MobiSystems' behaviour in other apps on the pages prior to that one, including mine - https://www.aqua-mail.com/forum/index.php?topic=5102.msg30688#msg30688.
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{^} This 9-month-old posting (https://www.aqua-mail.com/forum/index.php?topic=5102.msg30766#msg30766) from @iceman.jkh, talking about ads and nag screens was about the past, but now, it sounds very visionary.
There were criticisms of MobiSystems' behaviour in other apps on the pages prior to that one, including mine - https://www.aqua-mail.com/forum/index.php?topic=5102.msg30688#msg30688.
Yes, the one I quoted was not the only one... Sorry if I misrepresented that. I just used one as an example.
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Exactly, I don't trust them at all anymore. Wouldn't be surprised if they are selling all our info to the Kremlin as well. On to one of the other 65,000 email clients available.
Any idea of which one you might use? I've been looking at alternatives for a while and found very few that appeal. Most of them appear to be either not very good at dealing with multiple email accounts, or they're ones who pass your email across after it's gone through their systems for stripping info from.
I've been keeping an eye on K9 in the hope that it'll soon start to look like a modern app, but it's taking a while...
John
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{^} This 9-month-old posting (https://www.aqua-mail.com/forum/index.php?topic=5102.msg30766#msg30766) from @iceman.jkh, talking about ads and nag screens was about the past, but now, it sounds very visionary.
There were criticisms of MobiSystems' behaviour in other apps on the pages prior to that one, including mine - https://www.aqua-mail.com/forum/index.php?topic=5102.msg30688#msg30688.
Yes, the one I quoted was not the only one... Sorry if I misrepresented that. I just used one as an example.
No need for an apology; it wasn't meant to be a criticism, just a note that (although it was only a few days before) that wasn't the first post that hinted at how things might go with mobisystems involved.
Sad days indeed!
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PS. I am still puzzled: "Why?!"
Why did MobiSystem had to do it this way? What did the person making that decision think? To me, this behavior is akin that of a 5-year-old who thinks his parents might not notice that he ate the entire box of chocolate candies.
The same reason it always is. Greed, short shortsightedness, greed, great stupidity and greed.
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There may be no ads in the paid version but the engine to serve them is in the pro version.
That means extra but useless code.
One of the reasons I bought AM is it's clean looks and being lightweight. I've been a great supporter of that my whole life. Also on my high-end PC that can handle about anything.
We all knew this was to come. Making more $ out of a product can't be done without changes....
I can however see the reasoning for doing it for the free version. I have no idea what percentage of the users uses the free version. I can imagine a quite high percentage. Personally I bought pro as a thank you to the developer. Not because I really needed the pro functionality.
By that I'm not saying what happend is a good thing. Far from. I too start to look for something diferent. But that won't hurt anyone because I aready paid. Dumping the free version would perhaps have been a better move.
Broken trust is very hard to repair. I think totally impossible. If the programmer made such a mistake on his own. Said sorry on this forum and removed the junk, people would likely be happy again because of his great reputation.
But MobiSystems does not have such a reputation. And they won't change because that would mean a complete change of their business model.
:-(
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@mikeone Thank you and bye!
@Str Thank you. Changes in privacy policy without announcement? No way.
There was always support for problems in AquaMail on biggest german spoken android forum. This will be stopped, instead we will consider to warn.
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Download Blue Mail app and let AquaMail die alone
Sent from my Redmi 3S using Tapatalk
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@nica
It is a good choice and really advisable to warn against this adware version in your local forum.
The development since the transfer to MobiSystems is very annoying.
On the German Goggle Play Store are now "tons" of 1-star ratings, starting on 18th September 2017.
[Until then there was predominantly 5-star ratings].
@Kostya
Thanks a lot for a GREAT app, one of the best Android apps ever!
Thanks for your incredible job and support in the past. It was also a great pleasure for me to had the opportunity to participate in this development.
@all
Especially @ParisGeek, @StR, @nica, @Thomas, @Davey126, @Fcasoli, @someone, @patrickdrd and last but not least @Pyler
Thanks for the very creative and above all always respectful discussions here in the forum. I greatly appreciated your thoughts and ideas and it was a great enrichment for me as well.
My opinion and decision to leave the forum I mentioned in my signature below.
[However, I will continue using this great app, but maybe stick with the last known 'good' version...
Thank you, bye and take care.
@MobiSystems
Good luck...
May your greed not destroy the great work of Kostya completely! (Your reputation and trust is already down, anyway.)
A life to grow, a day to die...
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Download Blue Mail app and let AquaMail die alone
Blue Mail is one of the ones I mentioned that pulls your email through their external systems, before feeding it to the client on your device, so they can make money from information they scrape out of your private messages.
Check their privacy policy for details; I'm not convinced that's a good option for replacing Aqua Mail, yet.
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Download Blue Mail app and let AquaMail die alone
Blue Mail is one of the ones I mentioned that pulls your email through their external systems, before feeding it to the client on your device, so they can make money from information they scrape out of your private messages.
Check their privacy policy for details; I'm not convinced that's a good option for replacing Aqua Mail, yet.
So what is the best choice we have?
Our own offfial email app?
Sent from my Redmi 3S using Tapatalk
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the same discussion has occurred in the past and k9 was mentioned, but:
1) it doesn't support exchange
2) it doesn't support Unicode search
so, good luck to those who.. leave the ship,
but I don't think there's a client like aquamail out there,
kostya has done a great job,
I have paid for the app anyway, so ads aren't my problem,
if/whenever I have problem in the future,
I will stick to the last known good version,
we're talking about android anyway,
security updates in not that big an issue,
as it is in windows
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Download Blue Mail app and let AquaMail die alone
Blue Mail is one of the ones I mentioned that pulls your email through their external systems, before feeding it to the client on your device, so they can make money from information they scrape out of your private messages.
Check their privacy policy for details; I'm not convinced that's a good option for replacing Aqua Mail, yet.
So what is the best choice we have?
I don't know :(
I'll need to take another look. MobiSystems taking over had me worried straight away; as I've mentioned in earlier messages, even when you pay for their apps they advertise the new version as having 'features' that, when you try to use them, they turn out to be 'pay-per-use' (see File Commander as an example, and their 'office suite' is similar).
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Download Blue Mail app and let AquaMail die alone
Blue Mail is one of the ones I mentioned that pulls your email through their external systems, before feeding it to the client on your device, so they can make money from information they scrape out of your private messages.
Check their privacy policy for details; I'm not convinced that's a good option for replacing Aqua Mail, yet.
at least they are up front about and don't try to hide it like shady scammers.
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Mmm fair point.
Actually, this has made me wonder whether there's more to the recent "open links within the app" feature than meets the eye.
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Actually, this has made me wonder whether there's more to the recent "open links within the app" feature than meets the eye.
Like what?
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For german speaking users - see thread in biggest android forum:
https://www.android-hilfe.de/forum/aqua-mail.2241/aquamail-nun-mit-werbung-und-mal-nebenbei-geaenderter-privacy-policy.848164.html
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And for all others, Google Translate is your friend:
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.android-hilfe.de%2Fforum%2Faqua-mail.2241%2Faquamail-nun-mit-werbung-und-mal-nebenbei-geaenderter-privacy-policy.848164.html&edit-text=
Thank you, nica!
PS. It's funny to read "goes long before the dogs" (from "geht langfristig vor die Hunde") :D
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Actually, this has made me wonder whether there's more to the recent "open links within the app" feature than meets the eye.
Like what?
Well, I don't know how that works, but I wondered whether doing it that way allowed apps to monitor the activity themselves, rather than just off-loading everything to chrome for example. If that was the case, there's probably quite a lot of additional info you could scrape from it.
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Actually, this has made me wonder whether there's more to the recent "open links within the app" feature than meets the eye.
Like what?
Well, I don't know how that works, but I wondered whether doing it that way allowed apps to monitor the activity themselves, rather than just off-loading everything to chrome for example. If that was the case, there's probably quite a lot of additional info you could scrape from it.
I don't know all the details of how this functionality is implemented in Aquamail, but I have my doubts that it can collect the information. Here is why.
First of all, with the permissions that the app (Aquamail) has, it already has access to a plethora of information. What can it gain from your viewing the link? The link is already in the message, so, there is nothing new, by opening it. You can argue that Aquamail can see which pages you went to from that page. I don't know if that is possible or not. My understanding is that essentially, Aquamail just opens an instance of Chrome (if that is installed on the device) within its (Aquamail's) window, passes the URL to it, and the rest is ran by Chrome. So, I don't know if Aquamail can still access which links are accessed by Chrome at that point.
And from a different perspective, AFAIR, that functionality was implemented in response to users' request(s?) here in this forum, where people didn't like extra clicks to open a viewer externally, and then needing to get back to Aquamail.
Personally, I don't care for that and I'd rather have control over which browser is being used (I use Opera [a legacy version] on my phone).
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You may be right, which is why I mentioned I didn't know how it worked, but..
https://www.addthis.com/blog/2017/04/04/in-app-browsers-explained/#.WcWGn4y0lPY
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I might be wrong, - didn't have a chance to look how the in-app browser looks in Aquamail, - but based on the information I have, I suspect Kostya is using CCT (Chrome Custom Tabs).
(Otherwise, if he were using WebView for that, - there would be no dependency on the Chrome being installed/available on the device.)
If that's correct, then, according to this article (thanks for sharing it), the app (Aquamail) has no additional way of intercepting the content (compared to an external browser).
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No more statements from MobiSystems?
No response by Kostya? (I can not imagine, that ads and feedback are a sudden surprise?
I would like to see, what we can expect.
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No more statements from MobiSystems?
No response by Kostya? (I can not imagine, that ads and feedback are a sudden surprise?
I would like to see, what we can expect.
Nothing but crickets chirping is all I hear. Funny Kostya and Mobisystems are responding to basically any other post not related to the ads. So they are just ignoring all of this on purpose. Doing their best Baghdad Bob impression. I expect that behavior from Mobisystems because that are, have always been, and always will be complete scumbags, but I guess Kostya also had to become a scumbag wheh he sold out to them. Sad
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I also think that personal insults are highly inappropriate.
(Don't follow the example of some politicians on TV.)
@Paris Geek: I don't have much problems with the path of monetization via ads in general (as long as it is implemented well, i.e. unobtrusively), if there is an alternative option of a paid version with complete privacy (which is not the case of, say, Gmail).
It is the questionable business practice (i.e. how that was introduced), yielding the broken trust of the users, that is the biggest concern to me.
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I understand that you disagree with new AquaMail ad policy (I also do), but this doesn't give you the right to use ugly words regarding Kostya.
Sure it does. And I stand by every word. And you have the right to respond and they have the right to ban me.
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No more statements from MobiSystems?
No response by Kostya? (I can not imagine, that ads and feedback are a sudden surprise?
I would like to see, what we can expect.
I have the impression that users' concerns are not taken seriously by MobiSystems including Kostya:
- No announcement about changing the privacy policy to all users
- Showing ads in an annoying way (I understand the need of monetarization, btw)
- No response to those users who have always been involved in Aquamail and supported other users.
We don't know if things will get any worse in the future.
I personally recommended AquaMail to many others, and I am the one who now receives all complaints.
So I can not recommend AquaMail anymore like before (also in other forums), there are alternatives like MailDroid and K-9, and I will delete my forum account.
Plaese don't delete this post, thanks.
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I have since moved back to MailDroid at this point, they also have ads but not close to as obtrusive as what was done here (they also have made some nice updates).
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Using the pro version so I don't care about the ads in basic.
But the company policy and attitude of the developer seems to be very frightened. This is not trustworthy in the long term.
They would have better introduced a cheap recurring fee for the pro version.
By this the development would have been secured.
For the free users they would have introduced ads but only slightly. And not put the code in the pro version. No-Go.
Now they used time implementing this ad stuff, but they lack support of other important features.
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FWIW - I doubt if they spent a lot of time implementing the ads; we're talking about Mobisystems here - they're pretty much renowned worldwide for being able to load apps up with ads in no time at all!
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Replying to this so it will bump back up to the top. It's been almost a month with NO response from anyone at MobiSystems or Kostya. That's terrible customer service, which tells me a lot from both. Pathetic. They had some great ambassadors on here that were extremely helpful in the forums. And they left also. I guess the money they are getting from ads and mining data are worth more to them then their customers.
It was a great email program while it lasted, now to find something else. As bad as it is I'll probably just go back to Gmail temporarily until I figure out what to use. I have zero interest in having anything from either of them on my phone.
(Yes, I paid for the Pro version but I don't like the way they do business)
Blah.
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In what version/build were the intrusive ads introduced?
I'm pretty sure they were not present in version 1.10 from the Google Store.
Are they present in the 1.11 dev versions?
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I agree with much of what's been said here. I've already posted on the 'MobiSystems announcement' thread about it. So I'll just copy/paste that same response here [a bit like MobiSystems do when addressing criticism on Google Play ;-) ]
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...Didn't take long for them to completely ruin your app. Good job on selling out at least! Hope the $$$$ was worth ruining your reputation forever...
I bought the paid version within about an hour of trying it out, so the [presumably MobiSystems driven] decision to plaster the free version with adverts doesn't affect me [nor would have had I been using the free version, as I'm rooted and block ads at the hostfile level].
I've got to say though that [following the debates on here and reading the comments on Google Play--and MobiSystems nauseating copy/paste reply to them all], I'd not even have downloaded the app to try in the first place, if I'd come across it nowadays.
When are developers and site owners going to realise that people who hate adverts are never going to click on them in the first place and the more you force adverts in their faces or [in the case of an increasing number of websites] try and force users to turn off adblockers, the more determined those users become to NEVER click on one of your adverts. So nobody wins:
The developers don't get increased ad revenue as those users don't click the ads. And the users begin to dislike your app and distrust you and possibly consider moving elsewhere.
No one begrudges developers making a living by monetising their apps --especially an app so good as AquaMail. But I don't see what's wrong with using the method of adding extra features to the paid version, where people will pay to make something good even better. I think, when I tried the free version, it was limited to one or two email accounts and, after trying it and finding how good it was, I willingly upgraded to the paid version, so I could use it with my half dozen or so accounts.
Plastering your free version in ads and then asking people to pay to remove them is like a restaurant serving up a meal smeared with dogshit and then telling you you can pay a bit extra to have the same thing without the turd on top.
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Meanwhile Adguard is blocking something of AquaMail (tracking or ads... I don't know)
An be aware that I'm writing about the PRO Version of AquaMail...
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Which adguard?
The one that I see on the store says: "Adguard Content Blocker is an app that will block all ads only in Yandex Browser and Samsung Internet browser without requiring you to root your device. Adguard Content Blocker doesn't block ads in any other apps."
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This one:
https://adguard.com/en/adguard-android/overview.html
Real adblocker and tracking blocker you will never find in Play Store.
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Oh my this is a heated discussion, with people throwing around words like "scumbag" even (not that I really mind, free speech and all).
I've stayed out of this discussion because I really don't have much to say, but will now try to share a few thoughts.
1 - Yes there are ads in the free version now (duh!). Yes this is a business decision (duh!).
Spelling out the already obvious...
2 - "Wow, wonderful, this app finally has ads, I'm so happy to see that!" - said no one ever (about any app)
This is really the heart of the issue and there just isn't a way to reconcile that view vs.
vs. "I want an app with the features I need and new features added, bugs fixed, design refreshed, support questions answered, quickly - and free and with no ads".
( and yes, some companies have been able to give away free email apps for a long time, while _maybe_ providing all of the above... Google with Gmail... sort of..., MS with Outlook, Blue Mail / Type Mail... ever wonder how they cover their costs? Congrats to them all )
3 - Re: "sneaky", "all of a sudden", "no warning", etc.
Whenever there is a change there is always a "before" and an "after" - a "but it was" becomes "and now is".
Always. Whenever there is a change (good or bad, an Android app update or someone breaking an arm or winning a lottery).
Time gets divided. I just don't know how to do anything about that.
About "advance notice" -
first, we don't collect or keep the email addresses of our users (if we did, wouldn't *that* be reason to worry? and rightly so?)
second, even if we did, I'm sure many would be unhappy about "receiving spam" (even if for "good" reasons)
third, the design and layout of ads may seem "excessive" and "annoying" to some users, sure nothing wrong with having that opinion... but there are also those who actually don't mind (given that they are "oh no, ads!" to being with, what I wrote above about "said no-one ever").
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Sincerely, Kostya the Scumbag
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No one complains about monetarization and ads generally.
It's the kind of showing them. And additionally the change of the privacy policy without telling it to the users.
Both points are really bad.