C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is getting ready to tweak the widget checklist within the Pixel Launcher to indicate a filtered set of widgets by default.
- You’ll nonetheless be capable of see all accessible widgets by tapping on a button, although.
- It’s not clear how the Pixel Launcher will decide which widgets to indicate and which to cover by default.
If you wish to boost or add performance to your property display screen, there are various unique Android widgets accessible. Even when your favorite Android apps don’t supply them, you’ll discover loads of widget-providing apps. Actually, the sheer variety of choices would possibly make selecting which of them so as to add troublesome. To simplify this for Pixel customers, Google is getting ready to tweak the Pixel Launcher so its widget checklist received’t present all accessible widgets by default.
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An APK teardown helps predict options which will arrive on a service sooner or later based mostly on work-in-progress code. Nevertheless, it’s attainable that such predicted options could not make it to a public launch.
Whereas digging by means of the second developer preview of Android 16 that Google just lately launched, I discovered the next strings within the Pixel Launcher app:
Code
Present all widgets
Present all
Displaying all widgets These strings recommend that the Pixel Launcher’s widget checklist will add a brand new button to indicate all widgets. Presently, the checklist reveals all accessible widgets by default, so this addition implies a future change. Certainly, whereas poking round within the Pixel Launcher’s code, I found a flag for a brand new “tiered widgets” characteristic. This characteristic will filter the default widget checklist and add the aforementioned button.
The flag for this “tiered widgets” characteristic isn’t enabled in Android 16 DP2 or in Android 15 QPR2 Beta 2, the place it additionally seems. For this reason the Pixel Launcher’s widget checklist nonetheless reveals all accessible widgets by default. I haven’t been in a position to manually allow the flag but, so I don’t have any screenshots of the brand new “tiered widgets” checklist. Nevertheless, it’s straightforward to think about what it can appear to be.
With the Android 15 replace for Pixel telephones, Google launched widget suggestions to the Pixel Launcher. The launcher now reserves area on the prime of the widget checklist for system-recommended widgets, categorized by kind, equivalent to “Social” or “Leisure.” It’s probably the brand new default view will solely present these suggestions, requiring customers to faucet “Present all” to see the whole checklist.
After all, since Google hasn’t truly rolled this characteristic out but, it’s attainable it’ll change earlier than launch. Personally, I’d desire Google to undertake a two-page, swipe-based widget checklist like Nothing OS 3.0. Whereas I desire swiping to tapping, we’ll have to attend and see Google’s last strategy.
I’m additionally curious in regards to the Pixel Launcher’s suggestion algorithm. Some builders would possibly object to an opaque system figuring out which widgets are beneficial, so I hope Google offers extra transparency in regards to the filtering course of.
