This ad company is teaming up with US carriers to take over your lock screen
BY MANUEL VONAU - Android Police
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Apple has introduced a brand-new take on the iPhone lock screen for the next release of iOS. The operating system now allows you to customize the lock screen with preferred fonts, colors, and there is even a parallax effect where the clock can be partially hidden behind a subject in the image. We’ve been hoping that Google would take some inspiration for Android from its competitor, and while it’s still a possibility for Android 14, it looks like Android users in the US might be in for a whole different lock screen experience. A Google-backed ad company called Glance is looking to launch in the US, and it brings media content, news, and casual games to Android lock screens.
If you’re not familiar with Glance, you can count yourself lucky. The lock screen platform is part of the pre-installed software on many, if not most, Android phones sold in India and other Asian markets, and it has also made its way to the EU on a few select brands. Glance says that since it was launched in 2019, it has become part of over 400 million sold smartphones. The service has taken it upon itself to monetize the lock screen, pushing news and ad feeds right into people’s faces before they even unlock their phones. It's a subsidiary of Indian advertising behemoth InMobi, focusing on mobile-first ads.
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According to a TechCrunch report, the service is looking to launch in the US within the next two months. The company is negotiating with US carriers to look into partnerships and to become part of the out-of-the-box experience of “several smartphone models by next month.” In contrast to Asia, where the company is working directly with smartphone manufacturers, Glance seems to focus on carriers in the US. This makes sense, given the iron grip mobile operators have on the smartphone market.
Based on my experience with Glance on a few Vivo review units (like the Vivo X80 Pro), the lock screen feed tries hard to become part of your routine. Occasional notifications and swipe suggestions on the lock screen nudge you to interact with it. Once you give in and open the feed, it will override your lock screen wallpaper with its content, making you change back to your preferred wallpaper manually.
For me in Germany, the feed doesn’t seem to be very valuable at all. It only shows a few curated images, with a few possibly sponsored (though this isn’t disclosed). There are images of vehicles from Mercedes or electric car manufacturer NIO, all kinds of athletes and celebrities, a few film and series promos, some generic still lives, and more, but it’s nothing too wild or even anything you would like to use on a regular basis.
In India, the situation seems to be different, with more obvious advertisements, a lot of news, and even live videos dominating the platform. As Glance proudly proclaims in its blog, more than 200 million people engage with its service in India, consuming content like movie trailers, music videos, sports updates, travel tips, food recipes, casual games, and auto news right on their lock screens. It’s basically Google Discover on steroids, right on your lock screen that you can swipe through left and right for an infinite stream of content. All of this content is then further personalized to users depending on how and how much they interact with it — much like TikTok. The service is widely available on handsets from Samsung, Motorola, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, and Realme.
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As for the US launch, there is no word on what exactly the feed is going to look like. We would expect a healthy middle ground between the Indian and the European version in the beginning as to not put off people, though it wouldn’t be surprising if the company quickly turns things up given that consumer protection is weaker in the US than in the EU. One thing is certain: An entry in the US market will give Glance the opportunity to access users with more money to spend than many in Asian countries. This should allow Glance to ask advertisers for higher prices, allowing the company to grow even faster.
