How to Remove Glance from Lock Screen on Android Easily

If your phone’s lock screen suddenly fills up with rotating wallpapers, “trending” news cards, or ads before you’ve even unlocked it, you’re not imagining it — that’s Glance, a content layer most Android makers now ship turned on by default. Samsung, Motorola, Xiaomi, Realme, vivo and several other brands all run it, just under different names, which is exactly why so many people follow one set of instructions and still can’t find the toggle.

This guide gives you the exact settings path for your specific phone, what to do when Glance is missing from settings entirely, and how to stop it from quietly turning itself back on after an update.

What Glance Actually Is

Glance is a lock-screen content service built by a company of the same name and licensed to phone manufacturers. Rather than something you install, it’s stitched into the lock screen and wallpaper system before the phone ever reaches a shelf — which is why most people discover it by accident rather than by choice.

Fig. 1 — The four things worth knowing about Glance before you try to remove it.

Once active, it can refresh wallpapers, surface sponsored “stories,” and show shopping or news widgets that load over your data or Wi-Fi connection — all while the phone is still locked. None of this requires you to open an app; it runs as a background service tied to the lock screen itself.

Glance isn’t malware and it isn’t a scam — it’s an advertising and engagement layer that OEMs are paid to pre-install. That’s also why “uninstalling” it isn’t always on the table; on most brands, disabling is the only available option.

Find Your Brand First

This is the part most guides skip, and it’s the reason “remove Glance” tutorials so often don’t work: the feature has a different name and a different settings path on every manufacturer. Match yours below before following any steps.

Fig. 2 — Glance’s on-screen name and exact settings path by brand, current as of 2026 software builds.

Removing Glance on Samsung (One UI)

On Galaxy phones, Glance is folded into Samsung’s wallpaper engine rather than listed as its own app, which is why searching your app drawer for it usually comes up empty.

1. Open Settings → Wallpaper and style
2. Tap Change wallpapers
3. Select Wallpaper services
4. Choose None (or “My wallpaper”) to stop content-driven wallpapers
5. Separately, open Settings → Lock screen and turn off any “Lock screen services” or “Content” toggle listed there

On newer One UI 7/8 builds, some users report the Wallpaper services menu is missing toggles entirely, even though Glance content still appears — see the section below on what to do when this happens.

Removing Glance on Motorola

Motorola brands its version “Glance for Moto” and treats it as a removable system app rather than a wallpaper service, so the process looks a bit different from Samsung’s.

1. Go to Settings → Display → Lock Screen → Glance for Moto and toggle it off
2. If it reappears, go to Settings → Apps → See all apps → Glance
3. Tap Disable, then open the app’s storage/data page and tap Force stop
4. On the same screen, turn off Background data and Unrestricted data usage so it can’t quietly re-enable itself

Some Moto owners find Glance reinstalls itself via the Play Store even after disabling it. If that happens, open the Play Store listing for Glance and disable auto-updates for that app specifically, in addition to the steps above.

Removing Glance on Xiaomi, Redmi & POCO

MIUI and HyperOS call this feature “Glance for Mi” or simply “Glance Screen,” and it’s the one brand where you can actually uninstall the underlying app rather than just disable it.

1. Open Settings → Lock screen (sometimes under Lock screen & AOD)
2. Tap Glance for Mi and switch it off
3. For a cleaner removal, go to Settings → Apps → Manage apps, search Wallpaper Carousel
4. Tap Uninstall — this removes the underlying engine, not just the toggle

If you’re also getting unrelated promotional notifications on MIUI, check Settings → Notifications → Recommendations and turn off “Receive recommendations,” which is a separate ad channel from Glance.

Removing Glance on Realme

Realme’s version is branded “Lock Screen Magazine” inside Realme UI.

1. Open Settings → Lock screen
2. Find Lock screen magazine and toggle it off
3. If a wallpaper carousel keeps changing your background, also set Wallpaper → Auto-change wallpaper to off

Removing Glance on vivo & iQOO

vivo and iQOO phones running FuntouchOS or OriginOS label this feature “Lock Screen Poster.”

1. Open Settings → Lock screen and password
2. Tap Lock screen poster and toggle it off
3. If the option isn’t visible, check Settings → Lock screen wallpaper → Wallpaper settings for a secondary toggle

Removing Glance on Stock Android & Nothing Phones

A small number of Motorola-adjacent and carrier-customized “stock” Android builds in the US run a lighter pilot version of Glance, mostly showing weather and news rather than ads.

1. Go to Settings → Home & Lock screen → Lock screen → Glance
2. Toggle it off

Note that this version may occasionally show a full-screen prompt asking you to turn it back on — declining the prompt does not re-enable it.

Glance Isn’t in Your Settings At All

This is one of the most common complaints, especially on recent Galaxy models: people see Glance content on the lock screen, but there’s no Glance toggle anywhere in Settings, Apps, or Wallpaper services — sometimes there’s no Glance app, no Lock Screen Stories, and no Wallpaper services menu at all.

Fig. 3 — Two troubleshooting paths: Glance you can’t find, and Glance that won’t stay disabled.

1. Search Settings directly. Type “Glance” into the Settings search bar — on some builds the toggle sits two menus deeper than the obvious Wallpaper or Lock Screen path.
2. Reveal system apps. Go to Settings → Apps → ⋮ (menu) → Show system apps, then look for Glance and tap Disable.
3. Check the “All Apps” launcher add-on. On several Galaxy units, the Glance lock screen is tied to a separate add-on called “All Apps” (the vertical-scrolling app screen). Some Samsung Community threads confirm that removing or disabling All Apps also removes the Glance content, even when Glance itself shows no settings of its own. Go to Settings → Apps → All Apps and disable or uninstall it if it isn’t essential to your setup.

Glance Keeps Coming Back After You Disable It

If you’ve already turned the toggle off once and content reappeared days or weeks later, the cause is almost always a lingering permission rather than the toggle resetting itself.

1. Revoke notification access. Open the app info page for Glance and turn off Notifications — a stale notification permission can relaunch the lock-screen card on its own.
2. Restrict background data. On the same app info page, go to Mobile data & Wi-Fi and disable both background data and unrestricted data use.
3. Recheck after every software update. A system or carrier OTA update can silently reset the toggle. Build a habit of checking the setting once after each update rather than assuming it stuck permanently.

If none of that works, a full restart followed by repeating the brand-specific steps above resolves the remaining cases.

Why Removing Glance Matters for Privacy and Battery

Glance needs an active network connection to refresh its content, which means it can request location and usage data to personalize what shows up on your lock screen, and it keeps a background process running to fetch new cards even while the phone is idle. Turning it off doesn’t break anything else on the phone — Android doesn’t depend on it for any core function — and most people notice fewer unexpected wake-ups and slightly better standby battery life within a few days of disabling it.

What to Use on Your Lock Screen Instead

Once Glance is off, most Android phones default back to your chosen static wallpaper with just the clock and notifications — which is the point. If you want more control beyond that:

• Use your phone’s native Always On Display settings for a minimal clock-only look
• Try a lightweight wallpaper app that rotates wallpapers you choose, rather than a sponsored feed
• On Samsung, the built-in Routines can auto-switch wallpapers by time of day without any ad layer involved

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Glance keep showing up on my lock screen?

Because manufacturers ship it switched on by default. It isn’t something you opted into — it’s a pre-enabled content layer that needs to be manually disabled in Settings.

Can I remove Glance without installing any extra apps?

Yes. Every brand covered here uses settings that are already on the phone — no third-party app, root access, or APK is required.

Why is there no Glance toggle on my Samsung phone at all?

Some Galaxy software builds bury the toggle inside the “All Apps” launcher add-on instead of a standalone Glance menu. See the missing-toggle section above for the workaround.

Will disabling Glance affect my phone’s performance?

No. Disabling it removes a background content service; it does not touch any feature Android needs to run normally, and several users report smoother standby battery life afterward.

Why do ads still appear after I turned Glance off?

Usually a notification or background-data permission is still active. Revoke both from the app’s info page, as described in the “keeps coming back” section.

Does removing Glance actually improve privacy?

It removes one source of background network activity and ad personalization tied to your lock screen, which is a meaningful (if not total) privacy improvement.

Will Glance turn itself back on after a system update?

It can. OTA updates occasionally reset lock-screen settings, so it’s worth checking the toggle once after each update rather than assuming it’s permanently off.

Conclusion

Glance isn’t dangerous, but it is optional — and on most phones, turning it off takes less than two minutes once you know the right menu for your specific brand. Use the cheat-sheet above to find your phone, work through the brand-specific steps, and if Glance is hiding or won’t stay off, the troubleshooting flow covers both of those cases directly. A locked phone should show you your own wallpaper and notifications — nothing sponsored, and nothing you didn’t choose.