It’ll be a while before web browsing on mobile devices even comes close to being as good as browsing on a PC, but that doesn’t mean websites should make the experience even worse by throwing “interstitial” ads in our faces. You know those full-page ads that you see when you visit certain mobile websites that ask you to download their official app? Yeah, we all hate them, and now Google has decided to make an official case against using them.
Many mobile sites use promotional app interstitials to encourage users to download their native mobile apps. For some apps, native can provide richer user experiences, and use features of the device that are currently not easy to access on a browser. Because of this, many app owners believe that they should encourage users to install the native version of their online property or service. It’s not clear how aggressively to promote the apps, and a full page interstitial can interrupt the user from reaching their desired content. On Google+ mobile web, we decided to take a closer look at our own use of interstitials. Internal user experience studies identified them as poor experiences, and Jennifer Gove gave a great talk at IO last year which highlights this user frustration.