Google introduced several new iOS 14 widgets for its apps, many of which are available now (or will be soon). These widgets look great, and unfortunately put their Android counterparts to shame.
in a blog post, Google showed widgets for Gmail, Drive, and Google Fit on iOS. It also teased upcoming widgets for Calendar and Chrome.
Most of these widgets offer basic functions. For example, the Gmail widget allows you to quickly search your emails and presents shortcuts to compose a new email or jump to your inbox (it even lists how many unread emails you have). Google Drive is similar, with a search bar and shortcuts to recent documents.
Google Fit is a bit different, allowing users to quickly check their heart points and steps from the home screen. It even has a helpful graph to compare your progress throughout the week.
The upcoming Google Chrome widget is also very similar to the others, offering a search bar and shortcuts to common functions, including opening an incognito tab, starting a voice search, or scanning a QR code.
The Google Calendar widget is perhaps the one I’m most excited about: it lists the day and shows the upcoming appointments for that day. The Calendar widget will arrive later this year, while the new Chrome widget will arrive next year.
To add any of the new widgets, make sure the corresponding application is updated to the latest version. Then press and hold the home screen to enter ‘motion mode’ and tap the ‘+’ icon in the upper left corner to open the widget gallery. From there, you can view and select the widgets you want to add to your screen.
My hope is that some of these new widget designs will make it to the Android versions of every app. While functionally there is not a huge difference between most of these widgets and what is available on Android, the Android variants seem quite dated in comparison. A good design update would go a long way in improving widgets on Android.
Source: Google
