“I never managed to get it to happen to me,” he said. “That’s okay. I’ve never seen a meteor, but I know that meteors exist through the scientific process. And so, too, here I have a scientific process that is sufficient to reach conclusions, even if I’d rather see the meteor with my own eyes.”
AppLovin’s spokesperson rejected Edelman’s claims outright, saying: “We have never installed an application without explicit user consent.” They said AppLovin’s app ads redirect to app stores and “that’s where a user consents to download something or not.”
A T-Mobile spokesperson said in a statement that “T-Mobile does not install apps on customers’ devices without their consent.” They added that the mobile carrier ran a pilot program with AppLovin that allowed users to consensually download apps from ads, but that the pilot has ended. Samsung did not respond to a request for comment.
In March, AppLovin hired lawyers to investigate claims made by various short sellers.
AppLovin is currently being probed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over its data collection practices and allegations that the company breached contracts with some partners in an attempt to bolster its ads business, Reuters reported last week.
Despite swirling allegations about its business, AppLovin’s stock has continued to surge this year, up nearly 75% since the start of 2025.
Update Oct. 15 at 2:57 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from T-Mobile.
