A recent notification from the iPhone’s Wallet app has left online commenters angry with Apple’s new marketing strategies – as well as leaving me feeling a rare disappointment in the American tech titan.
Put simply, Apple has been promoting its new F1 movie through the iPhone’s built-in Wallet app, by sending out a push notification that offers a $10 discount at movie ticket site Fandango for customers who purchase two or more tickets to the film.
As TechCrunch reports, the latest iOS 26 beta build contains an option to switch off “Offers & Promotions” from the Wallet app – but this is missing from the current release of iOS 18.
It’s currently unknown whether Apple will continue to use Wallet notifications for advertising purposes.
A step too far
Roping an essential app like Wallet into a marketing campaign is, if you ask me, about ten steps too far. There’s something both tacky and irresponsible about using an app dedicated to storing and spending money to try and sell users something.
Personally, I take notifications from anything even tangentially related to personal finances extremely seriously – it’s just not the place to plug something as frivolous as a movie ticket deal. I’m extremely disappointed in Apple’s choices here – and it’s not just me.
In a thread posted to the r/Apple reddit community (watch out for strong language), users have been voicing their concerns and frustrations.
User yumstheman said: “Serving ads in a core functionality 1st party app is scummy.” And user ashsolomon1 called the notifications “an abuse of the system”.
Others, like user OutOfAmmO, suggested they might leave Apple’s ecosystem if the pattern continued, noting: “The lack of ads is one of my core decisions for being in Apples walled garden. If they’re going the route of being just a more expensive Windows/Android OS provider, I’ll look for greener pastures.”
Some commenters highlighted that it isn’t actually the first time Apple has used its platform for promotional purposes, with a few references to the U2 album Songs of Innocence, which was forcibly added to users’ iTunes libraries in 2014.
It’s an unfortunate reality that expensive tech products of all kinds sometimes ship with some advertising included. Even some of the best Android phones come pre-loaded with bloatware, or – worse – icons and folders full of ‘suggested’ apps on the homescreen.
But this is a rarity for Apple. Part of Apple’s image as a leading premium tech brand comes from the fact that it typically ships products with no in-software advertising outside of actual storefronts like the App Store and Apple Music.
Apple has an interest in promoting its own services, like AppleCare+ or iCloud+, but these pop-ups and suggestions normally arrive in times and places that make sense.
The Wallet app, as explained, is not one of those places. This is a choice that smacks of revenue-first thinking, and makes me worry for the future of Apple’s user experience.
Apple and platform decay
There’s a phenomenon in the tech world that we can politely refer to as “platform decay” (though it’s more often known by a less family-friendly name).
Platform decay refers to the degradation of the user experience over time, first to benefit business users and then solely in the interest of the shareholders and company profits.
Apple hasn’t been immune to platform decay – ads can be found in the App Store, Apple Music, and Apple News, and the 5GB default for free iCloud storage has become much more limiting as file sizes have grown over the years.
However, Apple’s ecosystem is far less degraded than some platforms. In a world of ad-riddled cheap phones, ad-focused social media platforms, and subscriptions for everything from your car to your printer, Apple is doing pretty well.
But this promotion-driven Wallet notification makes me very uneasy. Apple also opened its WWDC 2025 presentation with an F1 highlight, which makes me wonder if the company will go even further to promote its products in the future.
Apple has long justified its higher product prices with the seamless and unobtrusive nature of its user experience; I seriously question why the world’s most valuable company would need to compromise that in the pursuit of revenue.
I want to keep recommending the best iPhones as clean, cohesive experiences that don’t intrude on the user’s privacy and peace of mind. But if this sort of invasive advertising continues, I’m not sure I’ll be able to.
Be sure to share your view on this issue in the comments below.
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jamie.richards@futurenet.com (Jamie Richards)
