Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority
House display widgets have been part of Android from the very starting and the primary T-Cellular G1 in 2008. And for a very long time, widgets have been one of many first solutions whenever you requested an avid Android person why they wouldn’t use an iPhone. They ranked excessive on my private record of causes to make use of Android again within the day. Instances have modified since 2008, although, as has Android, and what was certainly one of Android’s biggest strengths appears like an afterthought right now.
Apple added widgets to iOS in 2020 with iOS 14, and it’s spectacular how shortly they’ve been embraced by customers and builders alike. Nearly each app on my iPhone has a helpful, high-quality widget that I get pleasure from utilizing, which isn’t one thing I can say about my Android cellphone nowadays.
However maybe that shouldn’t shock us when Google, the mastermind and commander of all issues Android, appears to place extra effort into its app widgets on the iPhone than it does for its personal working system. I might name that an issue, wouldn’t you?
Google’s Android widgets lack a constant design
Let me begin with one thing easy. Above, you see two iOS residence screens that use Google’s app widgets. The very first thing that stands out right here is their constant design. They observe the identical design guidelines and have matching shapes. If I strive replicating these identical setups on Android, the issue will instantly change into apparent.
The place do I even start with Google’s Android widgets? To begin with, the one YouTube Music widget that may match right into a 2×2 grid is the turntable, which is sort of probably the ugliest widget Google has, though there are many different contenders for that crown. The spacing on the calendar widget is all improper; the add button is simply too giant, the month appears remoted on the highest left, and the choice to place a circle across the date makes the entire thing appear to be a random assortment of shapes. The worst offender, although, is the Google Drive widget. The dip between the search bar and up to date information virtually appears like an accident fairly than an intentional design selection.
Google apps on iOS supply constantly designed widgets that match properly subsequent to one another on my residence display. Not on Android, although.
The second set of widgets has an entire different slew of points. Why does the Google Drive widget change into a circle whenever you set it to a 3×2 or 2×2 grid measurement? Certain, you possibly can’t have the iOS widget that small, however I’d take no widget at throughout this incomprehensible abomination. The close by visitors Google Maps widget doesn’t look too unhealthy on Android, however the one I need to use doesn’t exist: Google Maps on iOS additionally affords a widget that may be assigned to a generally traveled route and supply visitors data that issues in real-time, which isn’t obtainable in any respect on Android.
Past design, Google’s iOS widgets are extra helpful than their Android counterparts. Lots of them might be configured by the person to point out totally different data. The Google Drive widget has a “present prompt information” toggle. When enabled, the widget exhibits lately uploaded information like its Android counterpart. Flip this toggle off, and people information are changed with extra helpful, for my part, add and digicam shortcuts.
Between the design inconsistencies, lacking widget varieties just like the route visitors widget, and user-configurable choices, I desire Google’s widgets on iOS. They won’t be excellent or “enjoyable,” however I privilege performance over funky designs. For those who do just like the totally different shapes the Android widgets supply, you’ll be as unimpressed by Google’s iOS widgets as I’m by their Android counterparts.
What ought to Android widgets appear to be?
Do I really need Google’s Android widgets to match the iPhone? Whereas I desire a extra constant design, that doesn’t imply I would like Google to implement stringent design guidelines on everybody like Apple does. What I would like is extra customizable choices and a clearer route from Google. I used to be making an attempt to image how that might look, after which got here Samsung’s One UI 7 beta, which completely illustrates a steadiness between choices and constant design.
Samsung’s first-party widgets in One UI 7 have loads of choices that govern their operate and design. As might be seen above, you possibly can select between six totally different background shapes for a lot of widgets like climate, time, and calendar, after which change the opacity and colour of the background.
I’m not shocked that Samsung is the one to make an even bigger push on widgets earlier than Google. The corporate centered on them fairly exhausting in One UI 5, redesigning all of its personal widgets and including widget stacks, a function I feel all Android telephones ought to have. One UI 7 has taken that stable basis and constructed upon it. So, what sort of residence screens are you able to make with Samsung’s new widgets?
Mess around with the widget shapes and the icon theming obtainable via Samsung’s Theme Park, and you may make some enjoyable residence screens. I’ll admit I’ve by no means been essentially the most imaginative in terms of this type of theming, even after I was an energetic member of the customized launcher communities again on Google+. The primary screenshot is what I got here up with after some enjoying round with icons and widgets, whereas the second picture is the on a regular basis setup I have a tendency to make use of.
Once more, these aren’t excellent. I like them loads, however maybe the obtainable shapes aren’t quirky sufficient for followers of Google’s widgets. They illustrate my level, although. Having choices like that is higher than locking a person into one of many two extremes. Making issues worse, not less than one staff at Google appears to grasp that, because the clock app allows you to select between a number of shapes and transparencies for its widgets.
Widget Stacks is a function that might maintain me again from switching to a Pixel cellphone.
What I like most about Samsung’s widgets, although, are Widget Stacks. It’s a duplicate of an analogous function from iOS, however I don’t care who got here up with the thought first as a result of it’s one thing I couldn’t hand over at this level. With the ability to scroll via widgets with out leaving my principal residence display has change into part of the best way I exploit my cellphone day-after-day.
Sadly, I’m not shocked after I see Google lag behind in growing options it pioneered. Keep in mind when the Pixel launcher allowed you to vary the form of your icons? As a fan of Samsung’s squircles, I used to like this function, however in its infinite knowledge, Google eliminated it in Android 12. Google additionally used to have a hidden menu in Android that allow you to tweak the UI of your cellphone, like hiding sure standing bar icons. As soon as once more, it eliminated the System UI Tuner from Android.
These two options have one thing in frequent — Samsung introduced them again to its telephones via Good Lock — and I nonetheless use them. Theme Park has adaptive icon form and icon pack assist, and QuickStar allows you to select which system icons you need to see within the standing bar.
Briefly, Google isn’t any stranger to fumbling wonderful options it helped pioneer and letting Samsung and different OEMs decide up the items. Android will proceed to have issues with consistency in comparison with iOS till Google understands that it must set an instance concerning issues like widget design. However hey, not less than we’re getting loads of new AI options! What may probably go improper by specializing in that as a substitute of being attentive to the elemental elements of the working system?
Am I utterly out of line? Do you’re keen on Google’s widgets on Android precisely as they’re? Let me know within the feedback.
