With the update to Nothing OS 4.0 based on Android 16 in October, Nothing introduced Lock Glimpse, a feature which basically consists of showing ads on the lock screen, but with a fancy-sounding name. Lock Glimpse has been present on the Nothing Phone (3a), Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, and Nothing Phone (3a) Lite ever since, and it’s been quite controversial – even though you could technically stop the ads from showing up, the feature would still eat a lot of battery, according to multiple user reports.
Today Nothing is finally giving up on its lock screen ads experiment, but with a catch. Lock Glimpse will be removed from the Nothing Phone (3a) and Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, but it will remain on the Nothing Phone (3a) Lite and future CMF phones.
If you’re wondering why the Lite still has to deal with this, “the context is different” according to a Nothing rep, since “to deliver strong overall value at a more accessible price, certain tradeoffs apply”. Lock Glimpse will be off by default and remains easy to remove as the company strives to continue to improve it.
