by Google has announced that widgets for lock screen will come to Android 16 telephones later this year. Widgets have been available since last year on the lock screen of the Pixel tablet, but Google now brings them to phones and more tablets.
All widgets support the lock screen as standard, although app developers have the option to disable support if they prefer. Certain widget actions – such as activating an app – still require that you verify yourself with a fingerprint, unlock pin or face before they function.
The upcoming change was announced on the Android Developers -Blog, where the company confirmed that Lock Screen Widgets will be added to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) in the first quarter update after the release of Android 16, which appears in the late summer. Android 16 itself is still in beta and will be released in June.
While the widgets of the lock screen for telephones have not yet been enabled in the latest Android 16 -Bèta, Android Authority‘s Mishaal Rahman managed to activate the functionality early. He discovered that, although Pixel tablet users have access finally by wiping directly from the start screen, the current implementation for phones is only available via the Sreenaver mode of Android, where the telephone must be charged or moored. In his blog post, however, Google notes that the mechanism to activate the widget interface can be adjusted by hardware manufacturers, so we can see different approaches as soon as the update arrives.
The other difference with the pixel tablet implementation comes down on screen size. Instead of a grid with two rows of widgets, Rahman’s Video shows widgets stacked vertically, with only room for a few on the screen at the same time, so you have to sweep through screens to open them all.
