An Ad Company Is Teaming Up With US Carriers To Take Over Your Lock Screen

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. Android Police reports: 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. 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. [...] 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.

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