This is something we haven’t heard before – an app that pays you money to unlock your Android device’s screen. Believe it or not, it exists and is called Locket. Just don’t expect to quite your day job!
Money for unlocking
While that may sound very close to the name of that Dire Straits song, nothing seems further from the truth. Basically, you’re served ads when you do a thing you do anyway hundreds of times throughout a day – unlocking your screen.
The principle is very simple; namely, Locket will show ads on your lock screen, ads which are targeted based on location, purchasing patterns and other criteria so they’re relevant to you. When you unlock, you can swipe left to engage with the ad (for example, view a movie trailer), or right to ignore it. You must remember that you’re getting paid either way.
The app allows you to bring a friend to Locket (which gets you a dollar), and it’s currently only available to users in the US.
If you think you can lock and unlock your phone all day to make money, think again. According to Engadget, while an unlock brings you a cent for every unlock, you can only make $0.03 cents an hour. So, if you do this 24 hours a day (very unlikely), the same article says that it can add up to $262.80 a year. Not a lot, but still better than nothing, for something you’re doing anyway – unless you have a personalized lock screen you love, in which case… tough luck.
You can find out more in the video below.
As for cashing out, know that you can always donate the money to charity, use it to pay for various things, but you can also get it in the form of a gift card.
It’s interesting that normally users are looking for ways to minimize the amount of advertising they see on mobile devices. For example, you can pay a one time charge of $15 to remove Kindle Fire HD ads forever. But, it appears if you give folks some money, no matter how little it is to deal with ads, they will opt-in.
The next thing we need is an app that will automatically unlock the screen three times an hour, and at the end of the year you get your cash.
