Nokia releases Glance Background beta; allows you to add awesome photos to the Glance Screen

Have you looked at the Glance Screen on your Nokia windows Phone and wondered what it would look like if you added a background image? Nokia has released a beta app that enables you to achieve just that. Glance Background is a new app for Nokia hardware that allows you to pick and choose images to have set as a background when the Glance Screen is active.

It's a simple app, but the end result is really impressive. Selecting up to four images, the slideshow will begin when the phone is locked, rolling through checked images while the Glance Screen is active. The best part is how the backgrounds don't water down the functionality of the feature, which is to conserve battery while displaying the time to save you waking up the display. 

When adding your own images, a simple editor is utilised that offers basic functionality. Available effects include colorise and zoom. Thanks to the camera capabilities in the Lumia 1020, you'll be able to zoom in on loaded photos and create some interesting backgrounds. With reports coming in that further customisation will be present in the Bittersweet shimmer update, we'll look forward to see how Nokia can further improve the glance Screen experience.

If you're wanting to check out the app and see what all the fuss is about, be sure to download Glance Background from the Windows Phone Store (requires Amber update - not available for Lumia 520 or Lumia 625). It's worth noting that night mode will of course prevent the images from being displayed. 

Update: See our hands on video tour of the app!

Source: Nokia Beta Labs; thanks to everyone for the tips!

Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.