Google has introduced that lock display screen widgets are coming to Android 16 telephones later this 12 months. Widgets have been accessible on the lock display screen 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 screen by default, although app builders may have the choice to disable assist if they like. Sure widget actions — equivalent to triggering an app — will nonetheless require you to authenticate with a fingerprint, pin, or face unlock earlier than they’ll operate.
The upcoming change was introduced on the Android Builders Weblog, the place the corporate confirmed that lock display screen widgets shall 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 is nonetheless in beta, and is because of launch in June.
Whereas the lock display screen 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 screen widgets by swiping proper from the house display screen, the current implementation for telephones is just accessible by means of Android’s screensaver mode, which requires the telephone 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 all the way down to display screen 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 screen without delay, so that you’ll should swipe by means of screens to entry all of them.