Here's how much you see your lock screen and what you think of content on it

The Android lock screen is perhaps that one place where we’re not constantly offered content. While some of us would like it to remain like that, companies out there want to populate this space with content and ads.

We recently conducted two polls on Android Authority, asking our readers just how much time they spend on their phone’s lock screen and if they would like to see the area populated with content that also serves up ads. Here’s how they voted in both polls.

How much time do you spend on your lock screen in a day?

Do you want content with ads on your Android phone’s lock screen?

Results

We received just over 5,000 votes in both our polls combined. The first poll about how much time folks spend on their Android phone’s lock screen shows that most people don’t really pause on the space.

85% of the voters said they just spend a few seconds on their phone’s lock screen every time they unlock their handsets. About 10% said they probably spend between five to 10 minutes on their lock screens daily. 3% voted to say they clock more than 20 minutes on their lock screens on a daily basis. It’s fair to say that the percentage of people spending more than 10 minutes on their device’s lock screen is negligible.

In our second poll, our readers emphatically noted that they would not like to see any content on their lock screens, let alone content with ads. 95% of the respondents were against the idea of lock screen content, while 2% said they won’t mind it or would love to see it. A mere 1% voted to say they are indifferent about content on their phone’s lock screen.

Your Comments

ADofCLE: I for one, would return the device and buy an iPhone if I turned it on and see this bull on my lock screen.

Tony’s Texas Hots: Yeah, I’m a pretty dedicated Android user, but this would absolutely drive me to iPhone.

Michael W.: I normally just take the “eh it isn’t so bad” approach when decisions like this come around. But this one I am all in on the heck no answer. This is total crap and should not happen. We buy these devices and it’s software for crazy amounts of money (if you buy flagship) and now we have to put up with cheap “Amazon Kindle fire-like” ads? Nope nope and nope. I’ll go to pinephone, or get a bootloader unlockable phone and get rid of them. I use iPhones for work and honestly cannot stand iOS. I wish there was a decent third OS option.

Aunty Podes: Advertising has gotten totally out of hand. It is a pain in the RRR’s – virtually impossible to escape the obnoxious crap. I am so pissed-off with it that I take no notice whatever of what they try to sell me. Particularly annoying is the fact that the b…..ds get paid when it is displayed – not when you respond.

cocogoat main: What’s next, “watch 5 minutes of ads to continue your phone call”!? I would rather throw my phone in a lake and switch to a Nokia 3310 than have lock screen ads. I wouldn’t wish lock screen ads on my worst enemy.
I will NEVER turn off my AdBlock or Adguard DNS.

AJAS: No ads but I love the idea of glanceable info like the iPhone will show. Of course the iPhone has FaceID so you can unlock the lock screen but not dismiss it which is brilliant. Then you can see this info unlike on Android.

veesonic: I’m one of those brave souls that completely disables the lock screen and has no password on my phone 🤪 I want my phone expierence to be as fast as possible. Just get me in there so I can get out lol.

Kusuma Loka: Xiaomi did this (glance on lockscreen) in MIUI for years. And most of MIUI user disable this feature because annoying.

daftrok: I have side fingerprint so I never see my lock screen. Soon as I grab my phone its unlocked and I can go to whatever app or swipe down from anywhere to view notifications.

Rgd: I don’t think anyone looks at lockscreen these days. Especially when you can just tap the fingerprint scanner and jump right into the phone. I don’t even remember my lockscreen wallpaper! And about “glance”, i don’t know why people are getting so worked up over something you can just turn off, or even uninstall if you know a little bit of ADB.

John: This is terrible for security. As people will just start disabling the lockscreen all together just so they don’t have to deal with it.

Ladha: I was indifferent but the data usage and ads popping up during meetings have convinced me that this is a bad idea.

Arun Topez: The ONLY justifiable place ads on the lockscreen should be allowed, is if the phone was free/heavily discounted. With phones costing such a high-premiums (even more than average laptops), this would be such a stupid and desperate tactic to take advantage of users. And I say the same thing with Android TV as well since they push on ads on their as well on premium devices.