Subj : Watch out, lock screen ads are coming to smartphones  and Nothing
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Fri Oct 31 2025 11:30:08

Watch out, lock screen ads are coming to smartphones  and Nothing's are the 
strangest ones yet

Date:
Fri, 31 Oct 2025 11:27:55 +0000

Description:
The Nothing Phone 3a series includes a 'Lock Glimpse' feature that serves up 
links to ad-riddled articles on your lock screen.

FULL STORY
======================================================================Nothing 
has rolled out a 'Lock Glimpse' feature on some of its phones This shows a 
rotating wallpaper selection on your lock screen, along with a link to a 
related article with adverts It's likely that more companies will start doing 
this sort of thing soon 

When you pay for a product  especially something as expensive as a smartphone 
 you probably dont want or expect to see adverts on it, but they're something 
were starting to see on some phones. What's more, it might only be a matter 
of time before more brands start including them. 

Already weve seen Motorola phones ship with a Glance lock screen, which will 
show you things like news stories and the local weather along with adverts, 
and now Nothing has started including lock screen adverts on its phones too 
with what its calling Lock Glimpse, a much stranger system. 

Its actually less intrusive than Glance, with the feature showing rotating 
wallpapers on your lock screen, with no actual adverts or other content 
included.  What they do have is a link to some content thats related to the 
wallpaper. 

If you open this link, youre then served up the article on a page that very 
much does include adverts, and the articles themselves are  according to 
9to5Google  mostly recipes, random DIY projects, or random information 
without any sourcing at all. Screenshots of Nothing's Lock Glimpse feature 
(Image credit: Nothing / 9to5Google) 

So theyre not very useful, with 9to5Google speculating that theyre AI 
generated and exist solely to get people to waste time and view ads. 

Nothing itself hasnt meaningfully commented on these articles, saying in a 
community post that Lock Glimpse will surface timely updates and useful 
content, designed to enhance your experience, not distract you. Which sounds 
like the opposite of what its actually doing. 

The good news is that Lock Glimpse isnt so far coming to the companys 
high-end devices, with it currently being limited to the Nothing Phone 3a 
series. You can also choose to disable it, and with the exception of the 
Nothing Phone 3a Lite its off by default. The new normal 

Still, its hard to imagine this is a feature that many people want, and its 
odd that Nothing hasnt tailored the experience to at least offer more 
meaningful content. Weve reached out to Nothing about why this content in 
particular is offered and well update this article if we hear back. 

But with both Nothing and Motorola now showing some form of lock screen 
adverts, and us also seeing adverts creeping into other tech products  with 
even the likes of Samsung smart fridges getting them  it feels like it might 
only be a matter of time before this becomes more common, or even the 
default. 

So hopefully the responses to these recent advertising attempts will be 
negative enough to make companies think twice. 

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======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/phones/nothing-phones/watch-out-lock-screen-ads-are-
coming-to-smartphones-and-nothings-are-the-strangest-ones-yet


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