Nothing is releasing the Android 16-based Nothing OS 4.0 Open Beta for the Nothing Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro, and one new inclusion has ignited instant controversy. A feature called Lock Glimpse also shows up on the lock screen with rotating wallpapers and what the company says are “timely updates and useful content.” And the description leaves users to ask an uneasy question: Is this lock screen advertising?
What Lock Glimpse Actually Does on Your Lock Screen
NEW YORK—At least in the beta, Lock Glimpse uses fresh, wallpaper-quality images on the lock screen for you to swipe left and find new content. This feature is opt-in for now, and Nothing tells me you can swap out everything there with your own photos if you’d rather a lock screen that’s totally personal.
On paper that seems like a very nice wallpaper carousel. In practice, the messaging around “updates” and “useful content” implies a feed that exists on your lock screen. It could be for informational or promotional purposes, or a blend of the two—therein lies the gray area that some Android fans caution against.
Why It Seems Like Ads, And Feels Like Them
The playbook is familiar. A handful of Android brands have tried so-called “lock screen magazine” features that mix up wallpapers with bits of news, entertainment or shopping. Glance, a lock-screen platform from InMobi that has worked with several phone manufacturers, was first to test the format at scale and now claims it reaches more than 200 million users in India alone. The content is mostly positioned as discovery, but it also provides a monetizable surface that otherwise wouldn’t be there.
Nothing hasn’t clearly defined if Lock Glimpse is built from the ground up or a rebranded integration, nor does the beta explain how content gets curated. The trade-off is clear, though: You may consume more data scrolling through a busier lock screen, and in turn, wake your display more often and maybe nibble at some battery life. This would represent a pretty clear pivot for a company that has built its software reputation on having clean, restraint-first UX.
A Test Of Nothing’s Promise Of Minimalism
Nothing’s software messaging has been about stripped-down and readable design. Lock Glimpse is drawing so much disproportionate attention precisely for that reason: It runs counter to the brand’s carefully cultivated aesthetic. The broader industry context doesn’t make things any easier. Consumer pushback over system ads in previous MIUI builds led Xiaomi to promise that it would pull them back. Samsung cut back placements in a number of first-party apps following pushback. Amazon has a history of displaying lock screen offers on Kindles, subsidizing the price of hardware in this manner.
The economic incentive is undeniable. Lock screens are prime real estate that each user sees multiple times a day. Turning that surface into a content channel — no matter how fine — opens revenue opportunities for OEMs struggling with narrow hardware margins. The question is whether Nothing can thread the needle without pissing off a user base that took a chance on it specifically to avoid this kind of clutter.
Where It’s Available And What Could Change
Lock Glimpse is one of the features being tested in Nothing OS 4.0 Open Beta for the Phone 3a and the 3a Pro, after beta builds were made available for the Phone 2, Phone 3, Phone 2a, and Phone 2a Plus. As is true with all betas, features may change prior to a stable final release. Today, Lock Glimpse is opt-in. Defaults can change, however, as history indicates, so many users will be closely following the final release to see if that toggle remains an option not enabled by default.
How to Keep Your Lock Screen Clean and Distraction-Free
If you are trying out the beta and you like a more minimalist lock screen, just don’t enable Lock Glimpse. Should it not be for you, the settings allow you to toggle it off or select your own photos (it will cull other content). It’s also a good time to audit background data permissions and check battery optimization settings if you see more wake events.
Crucially, beta feedback matters. Your experience, when shared through an official company community channel, may impact how the feature eventually ships, the exposed controls, and content aggression.
The Bottom Line on Lock Glimpse and Nothing’s Minimalism
Lock Glimpse is a little switch with big meaning. If Nothing keeps a respectful, truly optional from the user standpoint approach, it might provide a nice way of refreshing the lock screen. If it does its job and then some, that workhorse feature risks jeopardizing the fundamental promise around which Nothing’s software revolves. For now, it’s opt-in, it’s a beta and the company still has something to prove that it can innovate in lock screen real estate without turning it into ad space.
