Nothing phones started getting Android 16 with the rollout of Nothing OS 4.0 in November. On Nothing Phone 3a, 3a Pro, and 3a Lite, the update included a feature called Lock Glimpse, a widely panned addition that served ads on those phones’ lock screens. Now, Nothing has announced that it’s bowing to user pressure and removing the feature — at least on the 3a and 3a Pro.
Lock Glimpse has always been an optional feature, technically — 3a series phones on Nothing OS 4.0 present the option to disable it. That solution wasn’t satisfactory, though, as users found the software was draining their batteries even when turned off. Today, Nothing shared that the feature is being removed from the 3a series (except the 3a Lite) as of the Nothing OS 4.0 December update.
In addition to removing Lock Glimpse from the pricier Phone 3a models, Nothing says that with the latest update, 3a users are able to remove Meta bloat by disabling Meta App Installer, Meta App Manager, or Meta Service. Upon disabling any of those three apps, the phone will prompt a reboot, after which “all Meta services are removed from the system partition.”
There’s also a new app recommendation feature in the December update, which Nothing says can be turned off by disabling the App Services system app.
Lock Glimpse is still included on the Nothing Phone 3a Lite, the least expensive of the 3a series. Nothing says that “certain trade-offs apply” to its phones that are available “at a more accessible price,” but also that a future update will give Phone 3a Lite users the option to uninstall Lock Glimpse. In the meantime, Nothing says, Lock Glimpse is off by default on Phone 3a Lite.
