Glance

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Glance

Basic information
Founded	2019
Legal Structure	Private
Industry	AI
Also known as
Official website	https://glance.com/

Glance is an Indian AI-based^[??] software company. The company was co-founded in 2019 by Naveen Tewari (CEO), Abhay Singhal, Mohit Saxena, and Piyush Shah with their headquarters being in Bangalore. Glance is owned by InMobi, a multinational technology company.

Glance's Core Product^{[capitalization?]}: the Glance Smart Lock Screen (also called Glance) which comes pre-installed on many Android smartphones (eg. Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo) uses AI to deliver personalized news, sports scores, videos, and games directly to your lock screen so you can consume content without unlocking your phone or using any apps.

Consumer impact summary

• User freedom:
  • Opt-Out Rootkit: Glance is pre-installed at the system level. Consumers lose their freedom to choose to use the app because the software is enabled by default. While you technically can disable it, it often requires digging through multiple layers of settings which is very time consuming.
  • The Portable Billboard: Glance effectively turns any phone into a portable billboard they cannot easily uninstall. Every time you use a phone, the first thing you see is your lock screen. Now imagine Ads playing instead.
• User Privacy:
  • Micro-Interaction Tracking: Glance doesn't just see what you click; it tracks "micro-interactions": For example, how long you look at an image or news story. This data is used to build a behavioral profile of your interests.
  • Biometric Data (Glance AI): With the 2025 rollout of Glance AI, users are encouraged to upload selfies for virtual "try-ons." This introduces a new layer of sensitive data collection.
  • Hashed Identifiers: Glance uses hashed device IDs and advertising tokens to track you across different services.
• Business model:
  • One-Click Installs (OCI): A major revenue driver is their "app-less" experience. If you see an ad for a game on your lock screen, you can "one-click" install it in the background without even unlocking your phone or visiting the Play Store.
  • Attention-as-a-Product: Their goal is to monetize "idle moments": the few seconds you look at your phone while waiting for coffee. By capturing those 5-second windows thousands of times a day, they generate billions in value from "spare" attention.
• Market control:
  • Manufacturing Partners: Glance exerts market control by partnering directly with manufacturers (Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo). In exchange for a share of the ad revenue, these manufacturers pre-install Glance, giving the company a "gatekeeper" position that third-party apps (like Instagram or TikTok) can't reach without the user manually opening them.
  • Bypassing the App Store: By operating on the lock screen, Glance creates a "parallel internet." They can promote apps and products directly to you, bypassing the traditional curation (and rules) of the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
  • Ecosystem Lock-in: Through sub-brands like Nostra and Roposo , they create a closed-loop ecosystem. Once you are in the "Glance-verse," you might never feel the need to unlock your phone to find entertainment, further consolidating their control over your digital habits.

Incidents

This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Glance category.

Program cannot be uninstalled (2022—)

A quick search can find numerous Reddit threads and reviews calling Glance software bloatware, as well as articles written by Glance that attempt to deceive users looking for ways to uninstall Glance software. Once a user disables it from having access to all the lock screen settings (because Glance cannot be uninstalled if it came loaded onto a device) it will use the user’s data to download the latest updates, undo all of the settings that have been changed by the user, and then on wake, send notifications and alerts to activate Glance. This currently happens on Samsung, Motorola, Oppo, and other mobile phones.

AI-generated lock screen ads (2025)

Samsung and Glance teamed up to deliver a new "AI shopping" experience that uses a selfie to create custom fashion ads.

Parent company charged $950k for privacy concerns

In 2016 InMobi, the Parent Company of Glance, was fined $950k in "civil penalties" for "deceptively [tracking] the locations of hundreds of millions of consumers – including children – without their knowledge or consent to serve them geo-targeted advertising"

Products

• Glance AI (Smart Lock Screen Interface)
• Roposo (2014, Acquired in 2019):
• Nostra (Originally 'Glance Gaming', 2023):

See also

• Samsung