The lock screen of smartphones arouses the greed of advertisers, who wish to display sponsored content on it. A new lucrative and intrusive technique that may annoy many users…
The smartphone lock screen is a key place. In addition to ensuring its security, it is also a place of information, with the display of the time and notifications, for example. But things will go even further. Soon, the first thing users will see when turning on their phone, even before unlocking it, will be advertisements…
Glance, a service that offers a pre-installed lock screen to brands, plans to sell display space to advertising agencies to place content there. Since the lock screen is the first thing you see when turning on your smartphone, it is a very valuable space. Apple understands this and has already made the iPhone lock screen a centerpiece of iOS 16, giving users more control over how it looks and works. But users risk losing this control with the new service offered – or rather imposed – by Glance.
Lock screen: a coveted display space
Glance is not new to the mobile market. It is a subsidiary of the Indian company InMobi, which notably counts as partners the powerful Google and Xiaomi. The firm is already well established in Asia with, as Glance proudly proclaims on his blog, more than 200 million people interacting with its service in India alone. It would now be in negotiations with American operators to prepare for the launch in the United States in the coming months. Unlike Asia where the company works directly with manufacturers, it is mobile operators – who can install applications on mobiles – who are targeted in the United States, since the American public essentially goes through them to buy their smartphones. .
The principle is somewhat similar to the Snapchat Discover feed but directly on the phone’s lock screen. The company offers a rotating set of news headlines, movie or series trailers, quizzes, games and photos that appear every time the smartphone screen turns on. And it turns on very, very often. As Glance explains, users watch it an average of 65 times a day.
Advertising on the lock screen: a way to impose information
The question that naturally comes to mind about this new feature is: why? The user pays for his smartphone, his mobile plan, he is constantly invaded by advertisements on the Internet and applications, and he should also suffer them until his home screen? Naveen Tewari, the CEO of InMobi, told Forbes when launching Glance that “consumers will move from searching for content to consuming what is shown to them“. Apple has already thought about this type of function and could be very interested. Apple’s software manager, Craig Federighi, sees a more feature-rich lock screen as a way to help consumers use their phones less. He has moreover qualified the lock screen of “face of your phoneand said features like Live Activities could make it easier to get quick information without having to unlock your smartphone and open up the distractions inside.i you can get the answer at a glance then you don’t unlock“, he explains, “and once you’ve unlocked your phone, you almost forget why you’re there in the first place!“Unlocking your phone and opening an app has apparently become too complicated a task.
TechCrunch reports that Glance is already negotiating with US carriers and plans to launch its service on select Android phones in the US within the next two months.