Google giveth, and Google taketh away.
It’s an all-too-common tale here in the land o’ Android, and it’s exactly what happened in the world of widgets on our lock screens.
Way back in 2012, a full decade before Apple decided to (cough, snort) invent the idea of a more interactive smartphone entry point, Google made a big deal about bringing widgets onto the Android lock screen with its Android 4.2 release. It was all the rage — until two years later, anyhow, when Google quietly killed the feature off without any explanation.
Now, it’s still entirely possible Google could reverse course and giveth again. We’ve seen the company flip flop plenty and even come back around to forgotten concepts specifically after Apple started offering something similar.
But for now, El Googenthal seems focused on bringing simple shortcuts to the lock screen, with its upcoming Android 14 update. That’s nice! It’s fine. But it’s also far more limiting and useful than a full-fledged widget would be.
Luckily, you aren’t an average phone-carrying citizen. You’re reading this column, after all, and that puts you in a rarefied category of exceptionally curious, capable, and comely Android-adoring organisms.
And what a day it is to sport that designation. In about two minutes, you’re gonna have any widget you want on your Android phone’s lock screen — no matter what kind of phone you’re carrying or what flavor of Android it’s running.
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Widgets, meet the Android lock screen — again
The secret to bringing widgets onto your Android lock screen this instant is a crafty little app called — wait for it… — Lockscreen Widgets and Drawer. Creative name, right?!
But while the moniker may be mundane, the power the app provides is yet another example of the kind of customization and control that only Android makes possible.
Lockscreen Widgets and Drawer has actually been around for a while now, but when I last looked at it — well, frankly, it wasn’t that great. The app was still relatively early in its development, and it had far too many asterisks and awkward edges for me to actually use it myself, let alone recommend it.
The creation’s come a long way since that point, though, and it’s now really effective and compelling. It truly has the potential to transform your Android phone’s lock screen and bring a whole new level of usefulness to that area in whatever way makes the most sense for you. It opens the door to all sorts of easily accessible step-savers, ranging from a preview of your inbox to a scrollable glance at a to-do list, a peek ahead at travel plans, or even a detailed view of the current traffic, the latest news headlines, or the upcoming weather forecast.
Lockscreen Widgets and Drawer lets you add any Android widgets you want onto your lock screen in any arrangement, in fact…
JR
…and you can even interact with…
2023-07-05 02:24:05
Post from www.computerworld.com rnrn