After a 10-year hiatus, lock screen widgets are set to make a comeback on Android phones. They’ll arrive with an update to Android 16 in late summer, Google confirms.
All widgets in the Android ecosystem will be compatible with lock screens by default. As seen on the Pixel tablet since last year, users will be allowed to customize the experience; if an activity on the widget requires opening the app, they can do that after unlocking the device.
For developers, the guidelines for quality, sizing, and configuration are the same as those for home screen widgets, though they can restrict widgets to the home screen with an opt-out API.
Smartphone manufacturers will be allowed to design the widget experience for their lock screens; decide when a lock screen is triggered and preset their preferred widgets, for example. These customizations, however, will not be supported in the initial release, Google says.
Android 16 is scheduled for an official release in the second quarter of this year. Its second beta, released last month, didn’t include lock screen widgets, but Android Authority got early access. In its current state, lock screen widgets are only available through screensavers triggered when charging or docking the device.
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As Tom’s Guide notes, lock screen widgets were part of Android phones until Android 5.0 (Lollipop) in late 2014. Last year, there were rumors about the feature’s potential return, but they only showed up on Pixel tablets. In the meantime, Apple introduced lock-screen widgets on iPhones with iOS 16 in 2022.
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