Android 15 Could Bring Widgets Back To the Lock Screen (androidauthority.com) 17
After removing the feature with Android 5.0 in 2015, Google appears to be bringing back lock screen widgets in the next version of Android. "There haven't been any indications since then that Google would ever bring this feature back," notes Android Authority. "But after Apple introduced widgets to the iPhone lock screen in iOS 16, many speculated that it was only a matter of time." From the report: As for how they might do that, there seem to be two different approaches that are being developed. The first one involves the creation of a new "communal" space -- an area on the lock screen that might be accessed by swiping inward from the right. Although the communal space is still unfinished, I was able to activate it in the new Android 14 QPR2 Beta 3 update. Once I activated the communal space, a large gray bar appeared on the right side of the lock screen on my Pixel device. After swiping inward, a pencil icon appeared on the top left of the screen. Tapping this icon opened a widget selector that allowed me to add widgets from Google Calendar, Google Clock, and the Google App, but I wasn't able to add widgets from most of my other apps. This is because the widget category needs to be set to KEYGUARD in order for it to appear in this selector. KEYGUARD is a category Google introduced in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean that very few apps utilize today since the lock screen hasn't supported showing widgets in nearly a decade. After adding the widgets for Google Clock and Google Finance, I returned to the communal space by swiping inward from the right on the lock screen. The widgets were indeed shown in this space without me needing to unlock the device. However, the lock screen UI was shown on top of the widgets, making things difficult to see. Clearly, this feature is still a work in progress in the current beta. [...]
While it's possible this communal space won't be coming to all devices, there's another way that Google could bring widgets back to the lock screen for Android phones: leveraging At a Glance. If you aren't familiar, Pixel phones have a widget on the home screen and lock screen called At a Glance. The interesting thing about At a Glance is that it isn't actually a widget but rather a "custom element behaving like a widget," according to developer Kieron Quinn. Under the hood, At a Glance is built on top of Smartspace, the API that is responsible for creating the various cards you can swipe through. Although Smartspace supports creating a variety of card types, it currently can't handle RemoteViews, the API on which Android app widgets are built. That could change soon, though, as Google is working on including RemoteViews into the Smartspace API.
It's unclear whether this will allow raw widgets from all apps to be included in At a Glance, since it's also possible that Google is only implementing this so it has more freedom in building new cards. Either way, this new addition to the Smartspace API would supercharge the At a Glance widget in Android 15, and we're excited to see what Google has in store for us.
While it's possible this communal space won't be coming to all devices, there's another way that Google could bring widgets back to the lock screen for Android phones: leveraging At a Glance. If you aren't familiar, Pixel phones have a widget on the home screen and lock screen called At a Glance. The interesting thing about At a Glance is that it isn't actually a widget but rather a "custom element behaving like a widget," according to developer Kieron Quinn. Under the hood, At a Glance is built on top of Smartspace, the API that is responsible for creating the various cards you can swipe through. Although Smartspace supports creating a variety of card types, it currently can't handle RemoteViews, the API on which Android app widgets are built. That could change soon, though, as Google is working on including RemoteViews into the Smartspace API.
It's unclear whether this will allow raw widgets from all apps to be included in At a Glance, since it's also possible that Google is only implementing this so it has more freedom in building new cards. Either way, this new addition to the Smartspace API would supercharge the At a Glance widget in Android 15, and we're excited to see what Google has in store for us.
what angers me about Android (Score:3, Interesting)
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Well, I run the stock ROM that came with the device but LineageOS and their forks would cater to your needs.
Un-bundling system apps would seem to be the domain of the European Union's competition laws, c.f. Apple being pressured into sideloading alternative app stores.
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I love the nag messages I get every few months asking me if I'm sure I dont want to back up my photos on their cloud service as if it's inconceivable someone wouldnt want to do this so it must be an oversite.
RCS nag messages are worse (Score:2)
Just got a new phone with Android 13, and in two days I've had multiple messages nagging me to enable RCS, and agree to an obnoxious personal data policy. I don't want to use RCS. Apparently the only way to stop the nag messages is to agree to the personal data policy, then turn RCS off again. But I'm not going to agree to the policy, so I have to put up with daily nagging.
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is all the apps they bundle in withouy my concent, i dont want youtube and youtube music, idont use google drive, and google photos, heck it is easier to tell you what i do use that is bundled with android, i use only google maps and the phone dialer & text messages and the rest i disable or preferably uninstall,
If you're getting angry about something you can disable and uninstall and only need to do once when you first buy the device, maybe the correct answer is therapy.
Most people expect a fully functioning Google experience from their Google device. Consider buying a phone that you can install some other OS on if this isn't your cup of tea.
Re: what angers me about Android (Score:2)
Plasma 6? (Score:2)
I would be cool if KDE followed suit and brought back this feature too. I liked the lock screen widgets in KDE 4.
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I have a phone with Android 13 and the lock screen design sucks and I can't add a nice clock/weather widget to it.
Count Me Awed! (Score:2)
Google is truly a pillar of innovation.
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Yep, my first thought as well. At some point it really is just counting up version numbers and artificial barriers to updating older devices or computers (like the massive crap and flood of computer waste MS is going to inflict on the world with Win11).
This should count as a crime IMO and should get people sent to prison. We really need to stop messing with feature complete devices or we will never get a stable IT infrastructure and end-user device landscape. Long-term vendor support could come with some ta
Never again (Score:2)
I will never again waste my money on a Samsung phone that makes it impossible to disable lockscreen menus, therefore impossible to prevent the phone from waking up and doing random things in your pocket, often unfortunate.
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I just checked it out on Android 12 (One UI 4.1), you have to unlock the phone before changing settings from the lockscreen, and you can disable the lower corners shortcuts.
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I just checked it out on Android 12 (One UI 4.1), you have to unlock the phone before changing settings from the lockscreen,
Only some of the settings. There are plenty you can change without unlocking the phone. E.g. mute/vibrate, flashlight, display brightness, etc.
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I will never again waste my money on a Samsung phone that makes it impossible to disable lockscreen menus, therefore impossible to prevent the phone from waking up and doing random things in your pocket, often unfortunate.
That's funny. It's one of my favourite features of Android given the girlfriend often leaves her phone laying around and the notifications drive me mad, the ability to do things such as put the entire phone on mute without unlocking it is great.
I've never had my phone do "random things" in my pocket. It sounds like you enabled Smartlock without knowing what it does and are now complaining about it.
Re: Never again (Score:2)