This app lets you send messages right to your friends' lock screens
Locket, a startup focused on making your phone's lock screen more useful, is living up to its reputation with ScreenPop, a new Android app that basically turns your lock screen into a messaging client. Unlike most messaging solutions, you don't need to open up a new app to send or receive photos. Instead, you can choose to send photos and notes right from your lock screen to your friends, which will greet them the next time they try to unlock their phones. And, similar to Snapchat, the messages disappear once your friends swipe through their lock screens. ScreenPop is clearly an evolved form of Locket's original concept, which involved paying you for viewing ads on your lock screen, but it also taps into our current love affair with messaging apps.
Of course, there are downsides to giving friends direct access to your lock screen. We wouldn't be too surprised if users made a habit of sharing particularly gross or offensive imagery (just imagine how surprised your friends will be when they wake up their phones). But despite the dangers, ScreenPop will likely find an audience among messaging addicts. It's also only meant for Android users at the moment, just like Locket's original app. Apple has made huge strides in opening up iOS over the past few years, but we can't imagine it ever letting developers completely take over iPhone lock screens.
