Do consumers want to see ads on their phone’s lock screen?

Glance, a subsidiary of ad-tech giant InMobi Group, made a splash earlier this year when it announced its plan to launch in the US. Glance exists primarily as a dynamic lock screen. Once consumers turn on their phone screen, they see updated content, like a different wallpaper, news headlines, videos, and advertisements. Glance already exists in several markets and is not the only tech company that provides this service. To understand consumer attitudes towards watching ads on their phone’s lock screen YouGov recently conducted a poll across 18 international markets. The results are unequivocal.

Four in five globally say they don’t want to see ads on their phone’s lock screen. 13% of consumers neither agree nor disagree while only 5% disagree with the statement ‘I don’t want to see ads on my mobile phone’s lock screen’.

Nearly nine in 10 Britons (89%) don’t want to see ads on their phone’s lock screen – the highest across all markets surveyed. Within Europe, Danes (84%), Swedes (81%), Spanish (81%), French (80%) and Italians (79%) are more likely to say they don’t want to see lock screen ads on their phones in comparison to Polish (75%) and German consumers (75%).

In the North American region, 84% of Canadians say they don’t want to see lock screen ads on phones. But in Mexico and the US, the number declines to 80% and 79% respectively with more than one in 10 saying they neither agree nor disagree with statement.

As we move towards Asia, dislike for the concept softens. Consumers from Hong Kong (66%), Indonesia (66%), UAE (69%) and India (71%), are least likely to say they don’t want to see lock screen phone ads among the 18 international markets surveyed. In the UAE about a tenth disagreed with the statement ‘I don’t want to see ads on my mobile phone’s lock screen’ - the most among all markets (9%), perhaps making it the most fertile test bed for this kind of technology.

Looking at a business perspective, distrust among lock screen ads goes up with age. 7% of adults between 18 to 24 years globally say they don’t mind seeing ads on their lock screen. The number falls to 6% with 25-44 and 5% among 55+ adults.

Males (6%) and those working part time (7%) are less likely to say they don’t like seeing mobile lock screen ads in comparison to other demographics.

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Methodology

YouGov RealTime Omnibus provides quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18 and over in 18 markets with sample sizes varying between 514 and 2023 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in October 2022. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov RealTime Omnibus.