Nothing OS 4.0’s latest feature sure sounds like lock screen ads

Nothing opened up its open beta program for the Android 16-based Nothing OS 4.0 update for the Nothing Phone 2, 3, 2a, and 2a Plus. The update was said to be coming soon this month for the Phone 3a and 3a Pro, and it’s finally here, but with a surprise: lockscreen ads!

Nothing Phone 3a series users can now try out the Open Beta for Nothing OS 4.0 on their phones, giving them an early taste of Android 16 before the update is rolled out in the stable branch. The update includes everything in the company’s original Nothing OS 4.0 changelog, as well as new features such as a revised Nothing icon design, a new “Stretch” camera preset for the Camera app, and a new Lock Glimpse feature.

What is Lock Glimpse, you ask? Nothing says Lock Glimpse brings “fresh, high-quality wallpapers” to your lock screen. Further, the feature claims to also “surface timely updates and useful content designed to enhance your experience.”

As the settings toggle indicates, users can swipe left on the lock screen to “discover captivating content from Lock Glimpse.”

All these vague descriptions lead us to believe that the strategy at play here is similar to Glance, a bloatware app that is pre-installed on many budget and mid-range Android phones that serves “content” on the lock screen — “content” being the word used instead of “ads.”

Yes, you do get a variety of wallpapers in the wallpaper carousel, but you also get a lot of unwanted content served alongside it, all in the pursuit of a “lock screen magazine” feature that is essentially another monetization surface for the company. It also unnecessarily makes your lock screen busy and increases the use of battery and data to serve you fresh “content” regularly. All of it goes against the prime ethos of Nothing OS being a “clean” UX skin.

It’s not immediately clear if Lock Glimpse is a renamed variation of Glance or if it is Nothing’s own homebrewed solution for serving lockscreen ads. In any case, here’s what Lock Glimpse looks like on the Nothing Phone 3a running the Nothing OS 4.0 Open Beta:

The only silver lining to this dark cloud is that Lock Glimpse is currently opt-in. However, there’s no guarantee how long that will remain the case. We’ve seen other Android phone companies slide down this slippery slope before — ship lock screen ads as opt-in, and a few software or hardware releases later, it’s enabled by default.

Nothing also says that users will be able to display their own photos on the lock screen, which will replace all other content — in which case, why ship ads “content” in the first place?

We’ve reached out to Nothing to inquire if Lock Glimpse is coming to other phones in its lineup. We’ll keep you updated when we learn more.