Thursday, October 17, 2019

Play Mobile Games Ad Free and In Peace with Airplane Mode

a large passenger aircraft flying off into the sunset
Yuichi Kosio/Flickr

For years my primary mobile gaming time has been on airplanes. It wasn’t until recently I discovered just how many damn ads mobile games have. It turns out the feet-on-the-ground fix gives you more than just ad-free game time.

Call me blissfully naive if you want, but for the longest time I simply thought my favorite mobile games didn’t have the same ads-everywhere problem that plagued most mobile games. It turns out that wasn’t the case.

The case was that when I was at home, I would use a game console or PC to game; when I was away from home traveling for work, I’d play games on my iPhone on the plane. When you’re on the plane, your phone is in airplane mode and, you guessed it, when you’re in airplane mode, there’s no network access to deliver and load the ads—so the app simply doesn’t bother.

Home from a recent trip, I went to show my family a puzzle game I’d really enjoyed and was surprised to see the thoughtfully designed puzzle game had full-screen ads (for the dumbest cartoon-style Sims knockoff I’d ever seen) playing after every single puzzle.

The solution? Pop the phone into airplane mode and enjoy not only an ad-free game experience but a nice break from the pings, dings, and constant notifications that permeate modern life.

 

No comments:

Post a Comment