The lockscreen is no longer just a security feature. It's becoming a content platform.
In the quiet architecture of daily life, the moment a person lifts their phone has become contested ground. OPPO and realme, two of the world's most widely carried smartphone brands, have deepened their alliance with Taboola to bring algorithmically curated news to millions of additional devices across India and Thailand — markets where mobile internet is still writing its first chapters for many users. What began in 2023 as a modest integration across a handful of countries has grown into a structural feature of how these phones present the world to their owners, turning the lockscreen from a threshold into a destination.
- The lockscreen — once a simple security gate — has been quietly converted into a monetized content surface, and millions of users in India and Thailand are the next to encounter it.
- OPPO, realme, Taboola, publishers, and advertisers all extract value from the same moment: the instant a user picks up their phone, before they have chosen to look at anything.
- The expansion builds on a 2023 foundation already deployed across the UK, Philippines, Singapore, and Argentina, signaling that this is a scaling playbook, not an experiment.
- For OPPO and realme, integrating a content layer is a competitive weapon in markets where Samsung and Xiaomi fight for the same customers — stickiness, not just hardware, now determines loyalty.
- Taboola's network of roughly 600 million daily active users gives the arrangement a gravitational pull that makes opting out of this model increasingly difficult for any major manufacturer.
OPPO and its subsidiary realme announced on July 9 that they are expanding their partnership with Taboola to deliver curated news feeds to millions of additional smartphones across India and Thailand. The move extends work that began in 2023, when both companies first embedded Taboola News into devices sold in the United Kingdom, Philippines, Singapore, and Argentina.
The integration lives on the lockscreen — the first surface a user encounters when picking up their phone. For device makers, this placement is deliberate and lucrative: manufacturers gain a revenue stream, publishers receive traffic they would not otherwise earn, and advertisers tap into Taboola's network of roughly 600 million daily active users. Taboola functions as the intermediary, pulling content from thousands of publishers and using algorithms to predict what individual users will engage with.
India and Thailand are not incidental choices. Both are large, fast-growing smartphone markets where mobile content consumption is expanding rapidly, and where the lockscreen recommendation model has significant room to scale. For OPPO and realme, which compete intensely in these regions against Samsung and Xiaomi, a built-in content layer offers a form of differentiation that goes beyond hardware.
What the announcement quietly underscores is how normalized this model has become. The notion that a phone's lockscreen would serve as an algorithmically driven news platform once seemed like an imposition. Today it is simply the architecture of the modern smartphone — and this expansion is less a disruption than a confirmation that the transformation is already complete.
Two of the world's largest smartphone makers are deepening their bet on algorithmic news delivery. OPPO and its subsidiary realme announced on July 9 that they are expanding their partnership with Taboola, the content recommendation platform, to bring curated news feeds to millions of additional devices across India and Thailand. The move builds on work that began in 2023, when both companies first integrated Taboola News into their devices across markets including the United Kingdom, Philippines, Singapore, and Argentina.
The partnership places Taboola's recommendations directly on the lockscreen of OPPO and realme smartphones—the first thing users see when they pick up their phones. This positioning is deliberate. For device makers, the lockscreen has become a valuable real estate where they can deliver personalized content without requiring users to open a separate app. The arrangement creates what Taboola calls a "positive user experience," though the real mechanics are more transactional: manufacturers gain a new revenue stream, publishers get traffic they wouldn't otherwise receive, and advertisers access Taboola's network of roughly 600 million daily active users.
Taboola, a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ, operates as a middleman in this ecosystem. The platform aggregates content from thousands of publishers—outlets like NBC News and Yahoo among them—and uses algorithms to surface stories it predicts individual users will engage with. When OPPO or realme devices display these recommendations on their lockscreens, Taboola benefits from the distribution, publishers benefit from the traffic, and the phone makers benefit from having something engaging to show users at a moment when they're most likely to interact with their device.
Adam Singolda, Taboola's CEO, framed the expansion as validation of the company's approach. "OPPO and realme have always been at the forefront of delivering great experiences for their customers," he said, positioning Taboola News as part of that mission. Tank Zeng, who directs OPPO's overseas business, echoed the language of user value, emphasizing that the partnership gives customers "access to trusted publishers all around the world."
The expansion to India and Thailand matters because both markets represent significant smartphone user bases where content consumption is growing rapidly. India alone has hundreds of millions of smartphone users, many of them relatively new to mobile internet. For Taboola and its partners, these are markets where the lockscreen recommendation model has room to scale. For OPPO and realme, which compete fiercely in these regions, integrating a content layer into their devices is a way to differentiate from competitors and create stickiness—reasons for users to stay within the OPPO or realme ecosystem rather than switching to Samsung or Xiaomi.
What's notable is how quietly this kind of partnership has become standard. A decade ago, the idea that your phone's lockscreen would be a news feed powered by an algorithmic recommendation engine would have seemed intrusive. Now it's simply how smartphones work. OPPO and realme are not alone in this—Samsung, Xiaomi, and other manufacturers have similar arrangements. The expansion announced today is less a disruption than a continuation of a trend already well underway: the transformation of the smartphone lockscreen from a security barrier into a content platform.
Notable Quotes
OPPO and realme have always been at the forefront of delivering great experiences for their customers, and Taboola News is part of that effort.— Adam Singolda, CEO at Taboola
We have benefitted from Taboola News because it taps into Taboola's long history of providing access to trusted publishers all around the world.— Tank Zeng, Director of OPPO Overseas Business
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does it matter that OPPO and realme are putting Taboola News on their lockscreens? Isn't that just another news app?
It's not really an app—it's baked into the device itself, on the lockscreen, before you even unlock it. That's the key difference. It's always there, always visible, and it's personalized to you based on algorithms.
So who benefits from that arrangement?
Everyone, technically. OPPO and realme get a new revenue stream and a reason for users to stay loyal to their devices. Taboola gets distribution to millions of new users. Publishers get traffic they wouldn't otherwise get. And advertisers get access to a massive audience.
What about the user? Do they benefit?
That depends on your view. If you think algorithmic recommendations of news are genuinely useful and save you time, then yes. If you think it's just another way to capture your attention and data, then maybe not.
Is this expansion to India and Thailand significant?
It is, because those markets have hundreds of millions of smartphone users, many of them relatively new to mobile internet. For Taboola and its partners, that's enormous growth potential. For OPPO and realme, it's a way to compete in markets where every feature matters.
What does this tell us about the future of smartphones?
That the lockscreen is no longer just a security feature. It's becoming a content platform. And that's probably permanent now.