Advertisement

Locket puts ads on your Android homescreen, pays you a penny to unlock (video)

Take a look at your Android phone. See that background shot? It's probably kind of cute, but hardly inspiring. In fact, is it bringing you any joy whatsoever? Is it helping you to make rent? Believe it or not, there's now an app for that. Locket has just launched into the Google Play Store, enabling a limited (for now) selection of advertisers to place ads on your lock screen and then paying you one cent for each time you unlock. Of course, it's capped at $0.03 per hour (so every other unlock is just making the company money), and you'll be allowed to cash out, toss the funds on a gift card or donate your earnings to a charity. For now, it's restricted to users based in the United States. Oh, and don't worry, we already did the math -- you can earn $262.80 by unlocking your phone's screen three times each hour, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Or you can just mow some grass.

Update (2014): As it turns out, Locket's business model didn't scale fast enough and as of January, it's no longer paying users to unlock their phones. It still exists, and will push quotes, funny videos or other info to your lock screen if you're interested -- but it just won't pay you to look at them.