Every smartphone user must have some widgets active on the home screen of their smartphone. However, most of them are unaware of what widgets are and how to make the most out of them for better convenience.
Apart from understanding what a widget is, we will explain what widgets are used for and how they can be beneficial for every smartphone user. Not just that, we will also illustrate how to add widgets to an Android smartphone as well as to an iPhone.
Understanding A Widget
A widget is a mini screen of an installed app. Every smartphone comes with a few pre-installed widgets. For example, the clock on the home screen of your phone is a widget of the clock app installed on your phone.
Some phones have a widget regarding weather updates, and therefore, such a widget is a mini screen of the weather app installed on the phone. Therefore, you do not have to open the app and check the required details from the widgets on the home screen.
Hence, a widget provides quick access to information from installed apps without the need for opening the apps. However, widgets are available online for certain apps, and you can add and remove widgets as per your requirements on your smartphones. They are designed for user convenience and personalization. In fact, you can also adjust the size and customize the available widgets as per your preferences.
What Are Widgets Used For?
Widgets are mainly designed to let smartphone users see the essential information of any installed app instantly for the home screen of your smartphone. By essential information, we refer to date, time, weather update, upcoming events, reminders, and likewise.
Therefore, such widgets are representatives of apps like clock, weather, and calendar. These widgets are placed on the home screen so that the users can see essential information instantly from the home screen.
Apart from these informative apps, there are widgets available for Google search, Gmail, News and much more. You do not need to open Google Chrome to search for something, Gmail app to check your inbox, or News app to check the latest updates.
You can see all of that every time you access your phone directly from the home screen. To sum it all up, widgets are used for showing essential information of certain apps on the home screen for user convenience.
What Are The Benefits of Widgets?
Smartphone users buy a premium smartphone not only for better features but also for more convenience. Widgets are specifically designed to enhance user experience to the maximum extent. Here are all benefits of widgets for which you should add as many widgets as required on your home screen.
- Quick access to essential information.
- Eliminates the need for opening essential apps.
- Easy to add to the home screen.
- Easy to read as size is adjustable.
- Widget contents are updated automatically.
- Customizable for better personalization.
- Increases productivity and saves time.
- Saves battery life as you don’t need to open apps.
- Information and controls of multiple apps in one place.
What Are The Types Of Widgets Available?
There are basically three types of widgets available to set on your phone’s home screen for easy access to the required information.
Informative Widget –
Informative widgets show you crucial information, and they update the information from time to time so that you have the latest information. For example, a weather widget is an informative widget that shows you the latest updates on the local weather conditions. When you touch an informative widget, it opens the respective app.
Collection Widget –
Collection widgets show you a collection of elements on which you can have a quick glance. For example, a news widget shows the collection of the latest news, and similarly, an email widget shows you the emails in your inbox. On touching such a collection widget, it will open the specific element you touch on.
Control Widget –
Control widgets show you a collection of controls through which you can either operate the respective app or perform important controlling functions without opening the app. For example, a music widget will let you play, pause, stop, move to the next or previous song. On touching the widget, the app will open with full control settings.
Adding Android Widgets
Widgets are easy to install on an Android smartphone. The best thing is that you don’t have to pay anything or get an app developer. You can add widgets on your Android smartphone in the following way.
- On the home screen of your phone, tap and hold in any blank portion.
- This will open a pop-up menu and tap on “Widgets” option.
- This will open all the available widgets from respective installed apps.
- Tap and hold the widget that you will like to add.
- Drag and drop it in the available blank space of your phone home screen.
You can even customize widgets by holding the widget. Follow by going to widget settings. Additionally, it even allows you to increase or decrease the size of the widget. Do note that if the home screen is full, you will have to make some space by clearing some of the shortcut icons. Otherwise, you can add an additional screen on your home screen that you can access by swiping to the left.
Adding iPhone Widgets
If you happen to use an iOS device, you need to follow these steps.
- Go to Home Screen of your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap and hold the widget until the apps jiggle.
- Tap on “Add” button.
- There are three widget sizes and you can choose any.
- Finally, tap on “Done” to add the widget.
iPhone allows users to add widgets from Today View. For this, you need to open the Quick Actions Menu by touching and holding the widget. The next step will be to tap on “Edit Home Screen”. Bring the widget to the Home Screen and select “Done”. However, this facility is available only for iOS 14.
Conclusion –
Widgets literally make life easy for smartphone users. They are now an essential part of every smartphone. Apart from clock, weather, and calendar widgets, you should try out the other available widgets on your phone so that you can enhance your productivity and save a lot of time. Besides, you can stay updated by paying a quick glance at the widgets on the screen while you are busy with other work.
