Indian advertising tech company Glance is reportedly in talks with US carriers as it prepares to launch on Android phones in the country within the next two months, according to a report on TechCrunch.
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Advertising on a phone’s lock screen is the latest boundary that companies are looking to cross. The competition for eyeballs is moving off apps and on to lock screen. They’ve already been around on notifications. For many, this might be a step too far.
Last month, Glance launched the first Glance Live Festival in India which took place on user’s lock screens, streaming a variety of different content from concerts to live tutorials. However, not everybody was happy as people found the “running list of notifications” to be a distraction.
The Glance app has a feature like Snapchat’s Discover, which showcases rotating stories, headlines, quizzes, video games and images that pop up each time the phone display is activated. The company calls these cards “glances” and according to them, are consumed by users on an average of 65 times a day.
The smart Glance feature doesn’t require users to log in and out of apps in search of news or information. In fact, one doesn’t even need to unlock their phone. By the looks of it, the company seems to be looking for a way to turn smartphones into consumption machines.
Glance is a subsidiary of InMobi Group, an Indian advertising tech firm. It has partnerships with numerous producers, like Samsung and Xiaomi. Google and Peter Thiel happen to be the investors in the company.
The idea has resonated with Apple which said users will now be able to customise their lock screens and access live content while the screen is locked. Apple’s Live Activities feature allows users to see live scores in sports and food delivery order updates right from the lock screen.
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Another lock screen feature offered by iOS 16 is ‘Focus’. It allows users to tie a lock screen wallpaper and widgets to a particular focus. Using Focus filters, apps like Calendar, Mail and Safari display only relevant content to the user’s Focus. Craig Federighi, Apple’s software chief, referred to the lock screen as “face of your phone” and mentioned that features like Live Activities can make it easier to get quick information without having to unlock the screen.