Author Archives: Luke Wroblewski

5 of our favorite Android widget features

Widgets are a simple way to personalize any Home screen, putting the information that’s most important to you — your inbox, the weather, your to-do list or even a photo of your dog — front and center.

With the upcoming launch of the nearby traffic widget for Google Maps (more on that soon), 35 Google widgets will be available on Android. To celebrate, we’re spotlighting five of our favorite widget features to help everyone better organize and personalize their Home screens.

Check local traffic with a tap

Whether you’re commuting or heading out to meet friends, Google Maps’ real-time traffic predictions can help you easily plan your route. And with the new nearby traffic widget, launching in the coming weeks, you’ll see this information for your current location right from your Android Home screen. So if you're about to leave home, work, school or anywhere else, you’ll know at a glance exactly what local traffic might be like. And because Android widgets are tappable, you can zoom in and out without opening the Maps app.

Dark green Android wallpaper showing a bamboo palm with the Google nearby traffic widget laid over the top. The widget shows a local map of traffic levels and zooms in and out.

Tap to instantly archive emails

The Gmail widget is a simple way to keep your inbox organized. Just tap to archive an email when it hits your inbox, without having to open the Gmail app.

An Android background with light purple orchids. In the foreground, the Gmail widget animates through the archive feature. An email arrives in the inbox, the archive button is tapped and the email disappears.

Scroll through your to-do list

Lots of you love the scrollable to-do list in the Keep widget. It’s an easy way to keep track of your tasks for the day, and there’s nothing quite as satisfying as crossing them off when you’re done — except maybe scrolling back up to see everything you accomplished.

A light peach-colored pastel background, with the Google Keep widget in the foreground. The widget scrolls through a list of items to pack for vacation.

Skim through your favorite translations

The Google Translate widget’s scrolling feature can help you stay organized, too. If you need to keep certain phrases handy while you’re traveling or speaking with friends and family, you can set them up to always appear on your Home Screen. Just star your favorite translations in the app and you’ll see them right on the widget.

Light orange Android wallpaper of a flower stamen. In the foreground a user scrolls through the Google translate widget, with selected saved translations to use.

Resize widgets to fit your needs

Android widgets are easy to resize and even change shape to help you declutter your Home screen — while keeping helpful features intact. For example, if you make the Drive widget smaller, it’ll turn into a toolbar so you can still quickly search for your files.

Light green Android wallpaper showing a green flower. In the foreground, an animation of different Google Drive widgets resizes.

Widgets just got better on Android 12

Last week, we announced new widgets for Android to bring helpful content and actions from your Google apps right to your Home screen. And today, they’re officially live. Here’s a rundown of what’s now available, and what we’re most excited about.

Personalization with Material You

Your device should be just as unique as you are, so we’ve redesigned our widgets to bring the best of Material You to your Android phone.

All widgets can be resized so you can fit different combinations on your phone screen based on what’s important to you. As you resize, your widgets will change. If you make your widgets bigger, you’ll get more functionality (more space means we can squeeze in more useful features).

And on select Android 12 devices — including the Pixel 3 or later — widgets will dynamically change color as you move each one around your chosen wallpaper.

Light green Android wallpaper showing a green flower. In the foreground, an animation of different Google Drive widgets resizes.

Resize each widget to best suit you.

Easy directions with Maps

If you’re on the go, the new Google Maps widget makes it easy to find what you’re looking for and puts helpful actions within reach. For example, if you’re looking for the nearest coffee shop or gas station, you can quickly search for them with just one tap from the widget.

Orange Android wallpaper showing a close-up of a flower. The Google Maps widget is in the foreground and shows the search bar and a number of quick actions like Home, Coffee or Gas.

The Google Maps widget, with quick, tappable search suggestions.

Help with your to-do list

Google Keep widgets can help you manage that seemingly endless to-do list. Choose from two widgets designed to put your favorite Keep functionality on your Home screen, like a tappable to-do list that’s front and center on your Android device.

Dark green Android wallpaper showing a bamboo palm with Google Keep widgets laid over the top. One list widget for your to-do items and a quick action clover widget for easy access to the Keep app.

The Google Keep widgets offer quick actions and a dynamic to-do list.

Frames for your favorite Memories

The Google Photos Memories widget will be the first to use the new freeform widget frames in Material You, showing off your photos in fun and interesting shapes across your Android device.

Orange Android wallpaper showing flower stamen with a selection of Google Photos Memories widgets overlaid. Each widget is a unique shape, including a circle, pill, rectangle and clover.

Google Photos uses the unique Material You widget shapes.

Quick access to your files and photos

The Google Drive widget makes it easier to upload and search for files. And if you choose the larger widget, you can open suggested documents with just one tap.

Dark green Android wallpaper showing a bamboo palm. Two Google Drive widgets are overlaid. One showing the quick toolbar options, the other some suggested documents to open.

Google Drive widgets give you quick access to your files and photos.

Non-stop listening

If you listen to tunes on YouTube Music, you can place tappable playback controls anywhere on your Home screen with the new widget. Plus, you can see what’s playing without opening the app.

Light green photo of flowers as Android wallpaper. The YouTube Music widgets are overlaid in the foreground. The widgets show playback controls and album artwork.

YouTube Music widgets put playback controls on your Home screen.

Simple view of your data usage

For Google Fi phone plan customers, an updated widget will help you easily manage your monthly data usage. And just like the previous widget, the new one will alert you when you’ve used a specific amount of data, and allow you to set data limits for other plan members from the Fi app.

Light green photo of flowers as Android wallpaper. The Google Fi widget in the foreground shows how much data is available.

Track your data usage with the Google Fi widget.

Closer eye on the time

With new clock widgets, you can choose from four analog clock faces for your Home screen. Each clock face is a creative design with a ticking second hand. And if you need it, a new digital stopwatch widget will help keep you on track (and on time).

Light green photo of flowers as Android wallpaper. The analog clock selection in the foreground shows three different types of analog clock faces.

The analog clock widgets have ticking second hands.

Most of all, we’re excited to see how you’ll combine these new widgets to create a more helpful, personalized Android device that’s as unique as you are.

  • An Android tablet with a light blue and gray wallpaper shows a collection of widgets organized in a unique way. Most of the screen is taken up with the Calendar widget, but the tablet screen also includes widgets for Google Drive, Gmail, Google Keep and Chrome.
  • An Android tablet with a light green and yellow wallpaper shows a collection of widgets organized in a unique way. The widgets include Google Drive, Gmail, YouTube Music and Calendar.
  • An Android tablet with a warm orange wallpaper shows a collection of widgets organized in a unique way. The widgets include Google Photos, Calendar, Maps and the analog clock.