Buying an expensive refrigerator should mean cold drinks and quiet convenience — not banner ads next to your eggs. But that’s exactly what Samsung’s latest Family Hub and Bespoke fridges started doing earlier this year, and people were not thrilled.
Back in September, Samsung quietly pushed an update that slipped promotional tiles into the Weather, Color, and Daily Board screens on the fridge’s giant display — the one customers use to check recipes or manage groceries. Overnight, kitchens turned into mini billboards.
The reaction was immediate. Owners jumped to Reddit, Samsung forums, and social media to complain that paying thousands upfront shouldn’t lead to ads in their home… especially not in the place they make dinner.
Thankfully, Samsung appears to have gotten the message. A new software update has begun rolling out that adds a simple toggle to shut the ads off entirely. It’s buried a bit — you’ll find it under Settings → Advertisements — but once you flip it, the screen goes back to the clean layout people originally signed up for.
It’s a small change, but the decision to provide a switch to turn off the ads says a lot. Samsung could’ve tried to justify the ads, but instead is letting customers opt out completely.
Owners of recent Family Hub and Bespoke 4-Door Flex models say they’re already seeing the update. If yours hasn’t received it yet, a manual system update check should bring it in the next few days.
A fridge shouldn’t feel like a free-to-play app with microtransactions.
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(Sources: 1, 2)
