Google-backed ‘Glance’ could bring advertisements to your phone’s lock screen

Do you know how Kindle Fire devices have ads on their lock screens? Do you know how much I hate that? I know that you likely do too. Your Android phone’s lock screen is a personal, sacred place, and it seems that Google has plans to invade that. Well, not directly, at least. In fact, Google is one of the investors (Via TechCrunch) of the creators of Glance, which is itself a subsidiary of InMobi Group.

The lock screen platform is now valued at around $2 billion and seeks to break out of the Asian market where it’s already on about 400 million phones and come to the U.S. over the next two months with a global expansion over the next few years.

There’s no telling whether or not Pixel phones or even your next Android phone will feature mandatory lock screen ads, but with Google backing such a thing, it understandably has everyone pretty nervous. Especially as a Glance spokesperson stated that they’re building a ‘premium offering’ for the U.S. Does that mean its services will be tied to mobile carriers? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

It’s also possible that Google itself has backed this company’s product since it has a smartphone with a custom OS in collaboration with Jio in India coming out soon. While there’s no reason to jump to conclusions about their intent in the western marketplace, I don’t see many Kindle owners complaining, so I just don’t want to see this become an accepted, standard part of the Pixel and Android experience. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and whether or not you agree.