Apple has made the iPhone lock screen one of the strengths of iOS 16, thanks above all to the numerous customization options. At the same time, however, the screen is becoming a space where companies can insert information, apps and even advertisements. And this is precisely the idea of Glance, a company that plans to launch advertising on select Android smartphones in the United States. When? Within the next two months.
The lock screen becomes an ad space with Glance
A smartphone lock screen literally flooded with advertisements may seem like a strong concept. Yet Glance is working on something that can be useful to users. The company intends to propose a series of news, videos, quizzes, games and photos that appear every time you turn on the phone screen. These content cards are called “glances”, and the company estimates that a user views on average at least 65 per day. And, of course, each of these cards teems with advertising.
For those unfamiliar with it, Glance is a subsidiary of InMobi Group, an Indian advertising technology company. It currently has collaborations with Samsung and Xiaomi, which allow it to integrate its software into over 400 million phones across Asia. Beyond the aspect of advertising, the company offers users an interesting solution to access the content they prefer. And without the need to enter and exit an App. Everything they need, in fact, is on the lock screen. “Consumers will move from searching for content to consuming what is shown to them,” he said in this regard Naveen TewariCEO of InMobi Group.
Either way, Glance seems to know exactly what he wants. Last month the Glance Live Fest, a three-day virtual festival that took place entirely on users’ lock screens. The company streamed concerts and interactive challenges, tutorials and interviews, as well as live shopping ad content over 70 million users. Despite the success, we still have to ask ourselves a question: do we really want to be attracted by “catch-all” contents every time we pick up the smartphone? Probably not. Of course, the idea of finding the content that interests us ready there is tempting, but perhaps we should feel free to be able to choose for ourselves what to read or see during the day.