Google has introduced that lock display widgets are coming to Android 16 telephones later this 12 months. Widgets have been obtainable on the lock display of the Pixel Pill since final 12 months, however Google is now bringing them to telephones and extra tablets.
All widgets will assist the lock display by default, although app builders may have the choice to disable assist if they like. Sure widget actions — akin to triggering an app — will nonetheless require you to authenticate with a fingerprint, pin, or face unlock earlier than they’ll perform.
The upcoming change was introduced on the Android Builders Weblog, the place the corporate confirmed that lock display widgets can be added to the Android Open Supply Mission (AOSP) within the first quarterly replace following the discharge of Android 16, due in late summer time. Android 16 itself remains to be in beta, and is because of launch in June.
Whereas the lock display widgets for telephones aren’t but enabled within the newest Android 16 beta, Android Authority’s Mishaal Rahman managed to activate the performance early. He discovered that whereas Pixel Pill customers can entry lock display widgets by swiping proper from the house display, the current implementation for telephones is simply obtainable by way of Android’s screensaver mode, which requires the cellphone to be charging or docked. Nevertheless, in its weblog publish Google notes that the mechanism to set off the widget interface is customizable by {hardware} producers, so we may even see totally different approaches as soon as the replace arrives.
The opposite distinction from the Pixel Pill implementation comes right down to display measurement. As a substitute of a two-row grid of widgets, Rahman’s video exhibits widgets stacked vertically, with solely house for a pair on the display directly, so that you’ll should swipe by way of screens to entry all of them.
