There’s no easy way to find Android apps with great widget support. That’s finally changing, as Google has announced new Play Store pages and search filters to improve discovery of apps with widgets.
Google is rolling out a new search filter on the Play Store specifically for finding widgets. When searching for an app, you will be able to tap the ‘Widgets’ button to narrow your results to apps with widgets included. It’s not clear if this works automatically with apps that include widgets, or if app developers will need to specify that their apps contain widgets.
Also, if an application supports widgets, the Play Store will add a badge to the app’s details page. Google said in its blog post for app developers, “This eliminates guesswork for users and highlights your widget offerings, encouraging them to explore and utilize this capability.”
Finally, the Google Play Store is rolling out a new page to highlight apps with widgets, organized into different categories like productivity and entertainment. The company said, “This curated space showcases collections of excellent widgets and promotes the apps that leverage them. This provides an additional channel for […] widgets to gain visibility and reach a wider audience.”
Notably, these improvements are rolling out to the Google Play Store on Android phones, tablets, and foldables. Chromebooks seem to be left out, since they can’t use widgets from installed Android applications—at least, not yet. The desktop Play Store website also isn’t getting these improvements, which is certainly annoying for anyone browsing for phone apps from their desktop or laptop.
According to Google, some Android app developers have been frustrated with building widgets for Android apps, only for the widgets to not be noticed by most people using the apps. There are also some new resources for app developers to build helpful and discoverable widgets, and these changes are supposed to boost usage of those widgets.
Android has supported home screen widgets for its entire history, dating back to the first public version of Android in 2008. It was one of the main differences between Android and iPhone for years, until Apple finally added proper home screen widget support with the release of iOS 14 in 2020. Additional lock screen widget options were added in the iOS 16 update, which arrived in 2022.
This seems like a win-win situation for everyone: app developers get more people using the widgets they spent time creating and maintaining, and the people who prioritize widget support can more easily find apps with that option. Browsing for apps specifically based on widget support might not always make sense, but it can be useful in some situations, especially with productivity apps. If you’re looking for a new notes app to try, and you want the notes to be always visible on your home screen, filtering your search to apps with widgets can save some time.
Google said in a blog post for developers, “These small but mighty UI elements can have a significant impact on your app’s success. A widget is basically a UI that lives outside your main app. Widgets act like a window into your app content and a shortcut to your core features, which users can conveniently engage with right from their home screen, lock screen, or even through digital assistants.”
The new pages, search filters, and widget badges are rolling out now, so if you don’t see them in your Play Store, you might have to wait a bit longer.
Source: Android Developers Blog (1, 2), TechCrunch
