What you need to know
- Glance is a service that can bring content alongside ads to your lock screen.
- It is backed by the InMobi group, an Indian ad-tech term, which is reportedly in talks with U.S. carriers.
- The company plans to bring the service to the states in the coming two months.
Glance is reportedly gearing up to launch ads on your Android lock screen. The subsidiary of an ad-tech firm, InMobi group, which made its presence in Asian markets like India, is likely to bring its lock screen platform (including ads) to the States.
Glance is seemingly a three-year-old startup that serves news, media content, and also games on the lock screen of Android smartphones. It is backed by Google and is on its way to bringing its service to your smartphones two months from now, a report from Techcrunch suggests.
It also suggests that the subsidiary is evidently in talks with the carriers in the U.S for new collaborations. It is aiming to launch smartphone models by next month, the report implies, citing sources familiar with the matter. The report also suggests that the service is focusing on developing a "premium product" for the U.S. market, implying that most people pay for digital services in general.
Glance promises to make lock screen engaging that could include ads alongside the features outlined above. The service utilizes AI to offer a personalized experience in replacing your dead-looking lock screen with local relevant news, stories, or casual games, for that matter. The service later brought videos in short form and started organizing live events and commerce.
For those unaware, Glance is already valued at $2 Billion and got its first 100 million active users, in just 21 months of its launch, which happened in 2020.
After hitting the first hundred million in less than two years of inception, Glance now has 400 million smartphones in the Asian markets. Aside from Google funding, the service is funded by Jio Platforms, owned by Mukesh Ambani, the wealthiest man in Asia. Glance already has tie-ups with manufacturers like Xiaomi and Samsung for the Asian market.
The expansion into the U.S. through carriers appears to be a promising move for the company, as most of them sell millions of smartphones, including data packs. For Asian markets where Glance is available, it gives users an option to disable its service if they want to, so we desire the same to be happening in the U.S. whenever it ventures because not everybody wants their lock screen to be engaging, some like boring too.
