Your Lock Screen May No Longer Be Safe From Ads

The sacred sanctity of your phone screen may no longer be safe from incessant advertising. The picture of your dog you may have on your screen could now be buried under a wasteland of advertisements getting you to buy something you have no use for.   

The news was first reported by TechCrunch, which notes that artificial intelligence agency Glance has been gearing up to bring its new platform to Androids. Specific phone models have not been announced yet, but from Glance’s website, it seems that it has garnered support from various big-name Android brands, including Samsung and Oppo.   

The platform will project dynamic wallpapers, news headlines, and videos right onto your lock screen. It is an interesting upgrade from the usual notification and weather updates that are currently found; however, in order to fund such a feature, advertising would be necessary.   

Glance is part of InMobi, a mobile marketing platform from India, and has financial backing from Google and Jio Platforms, the nation’s largest telecommunications service. Glance already has a wide audience using this program. It’s not a solid app that requires installation—instead, it’s an overlay to the Android system that provides advertising as well as tailored content.   

In the same way that TikTok has the ability to hypnotize its users into an infinite scroll of videos, Glance looks to hook users before they can even unlock their phones. Such methods of accessing content have been fruitful in the past, which only spells out another hurdle smartphone holders will have to jump over when trying to be productive.   

The platform is apparently reaching out to mobile carriers in the US, and with its current success rate, Androids in the States may be seeing unwanted advertisements within the next two months.

[via Gizmodo and Phone Arena, cover image via Glance]