Ads start appearing on Gmail for Android

The inevitable has happened and ads are now a part of your Gmail inbox on Android. It has been revealed that some users have already started seeing ads in the Gmail app, hinting at the fact that Google is in the midst of a wider rollout.

Advertisements are starting to appear in the Promotions folder of Gmail for Android now. It’s somewhat of a saving grace since the Promotions tab is not the default landing folder for the application. The Primary folder has so far been kept away from plans of advertisements and will hopefully stay this way.

Ads are here

These advertisements almost look like an email conversation, a feature that could irk quite a few users. There are certain differentiating factors, though. For one, the ad will have a pale yellow background, different from the grey one that other mails have. Instead of a thumbnail with the sender’s first initial, there will be a whole different icon that the advertisement will sport.

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Google has managed to keep its app on Android free uptil now. The move to introduce advertisements that appear once in a while seems to be a move in the direction of trying to keep the free application free. If you’re uncomfortable with the application you can simply choose to hide it. The great bit about this is that Google is only displaying these ads in the Promotions tab and not the Primary one. If you don’t regularly access this tab on your app, you may never even see the ads.