Singapore-based Glance was founded in 2019, and currently develops a lock screen advertisement platform with the same name. Glance is already installed on over 400 million smartphones, primarily in India and southeast Asia, where it shows various recommended content and advertisements on the lock screen. There are even some integrated games and livestreams — Glance said streams for Battlegrounds Mobile India (a regional version of PUBG: Battlegrounds) had 11.9 million viewers in 2022.
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Glance has gained attention partially from its big-name financial backing. Glance raised $145 million in December 2020, some of which was from Google, and Jio (the largest mobile network in India) invested $200 million in February.
TechCrunch reported earlier this week that Glance is planning to bring its lock screen ads to the United States within the next two months, citing a source familiar with the matter. Glance is reportedly working with network carriers in the United States to include Glance on smartphones, which could arrive as soon as August.
Even if the deal goes through as reported, you don’t need to panic that your future Pixel 7 or Galaxy S23 will have advertisements for McDonalds or Nike shows as soon as you turn it on. There’s no indication that lock screen ads will show up on premium (or even mid-range) devices — the most likely scenario is that they will appear on low-end phones to subsidize hardware costs. Many devices in that product segment already have bundled games and apps that show ads in the notifications panel.
That’s not to say we’re entirely free from ads on smartphones. Carriers like AT&T and Verizon still sign multi-million dollar deals to pre-install apps like Candy Crush and Facebook on many Android phones (even premium devices), and Apple advertises its subscriptions in the Settings app on iPhones and iPads. Samsung used to frequently show ads in system applications, like Weather and Health, but the company cut back on that in 2021.
In conclusion, you don’t have to worry about more Android phones coming with intrusive advertisements on the lock screen — the phones with Glance ads will almost certainly be the phones that are already loaded to the brim with ads and pre-installed apps. Lock screen ads have been tried many times before, and every time, they stay on budget smartphones and tablets.
