- Nothing has implemented the ‘Lock Glimpse’ feature on some of its phones
- This displays a selection of rotating wallpaper on the lock screen, along with a link to an ad-related article.
- More companies will likely start doing this kind of thing soon.
When you pay for a product, especially something as expensive as a smartphone, you probably don’t want or expect to see ads on it, but it’s something we’re starting to see on some phones. What’s more, it may only be a matter of time before more brands start including them.
We’ve already seen Motorola phones with a ‘Glance’ lock screen, which will show you things like news and local weather alongside ads, and now Nothing has also started including ads on the lock screen on its phones with what it calls ‘Lock Glimpse’, a much stranger system.
It’s actually less intrusive than Glance, as the feature displays rotating wallpapers on your lock screen, with no actual ads or other content included. What they do have is a link to some content related to the wallpaper.
If you open this link, you’ll be shown the article on a page that includes a lot of ads, and the articles themselves are, according to 9to5Google, mostly “recipes, random DIY projects, or random information without any source.”
Therefore, they aren’t very useful, and 9to5Google speculates that they are AI-generated and “exist solely to waste people’s time and watch ads.”
Nothing itself has not significantly commented on these articles, saying in a community post that Lock Glimpse “will feature timely updates and useful content, designed to enhance your experience, not distract you.” Which sounds like the opposite of what you’re actually doing.
The good news is that Lock Glimpse will not be coming to the company’s high-end devices so far, as it is currently limited to the Nothing Phone 3a series. You can also choose to disable it and, with the exception of the Nothing Phone 3a Lite, it is disabled by default.
The new normal
Still, it’s hard to imagine this is a feature many people want, and it’s strange that Nothing hasn’t adapted the experience to at least offer more meaningful content. We’ve reached out to Nothing about why this particular content is being offered and will update this article if we hear back.
But now that Nothing and Motorola are showing some form of advertising on the lock screen, and we’re also seeing ads creeping into other tech products (even companies like Samsung’s smart refrigerators are getting them), it seems like it’ll only be a matter of time before this becomes more common, or even the default.
So hopefully the responses to these recent advertising efforts will be negative enough to make companies think twice.
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