One UI 7 is here and Google is taking widgets seriously again

Big updates can be a mixed bag. Sometimes, you'll get a great new feature that becomes an indispensable part of your everyday life. Other times, your favorite feature might get removed, never to see the light of day until 10 years later when something old becomes new again.

Case in point is widgets, a major feature of Android 1.0 that saw a significant decline in popularity after Google got rid of lock screen widgets in Android 5. But, as expected, what's old is new again. With the release of Samsung's One UI 7, lock screen widgets are becoming cool again. So much so, in fact, that Google's latest Android Developers blog post focuses on how important widgets are for user engagement. Imagine that.

We first saw the groundwork being laid for lock screen widgets in a beta build of Android 14, followed by a full rollout of the feature on the Google Pixel Tablet last September. More phones will be getting the feature with a quarterly update of Android 16, but Samsung is beating everyone else to the punch by including it on every device that has access to One UI 7 this year.

Faster, better, prettier

Google's renewed interest in widgets really started to pop on the Pixel 9 last year when it launched a redesigned Pixel Weather app, which prominently featured widgets of all kinds. These widgets weren't just gorgeous looking; they also made it easy to see and understand a plethora of data at a glance.

While you can't break these widgets out of the app and place them individually on your home screen or lock screen (classic Google), many other apps are starting to take widgets more seriously, and Google Play is adapting. Developers can now show their app widgets right on the Play Store listing, and users can search specifically for apps that include widgets by using a handy filter.

I use widgets every single day to quickly take notes or access individual notes, control media playback with a dedicated YouTube Music widget, search Google with text or visually with the Google widget, check my weekly meal plan with Our Groceries, quickly start by Roborock robot vacuum routines with a tap, and scroll through my calendar without having to find the app first.

But what I'm really interested in now is relearning how to use lock screen widgets again. These died in the Android 5 days when biometrics were becoming more commonplace as people stopped using their lock screens in favor of unlocking straight to the home screen. Things have changed, though, and we've learned to like our lock screens again.

Having separate widgets on the lock screen gives us one more surface to custom-tailor our day, and I know exactly what's going to be on there. That dedicated YouTube Music widget will always be on the lock screen, so I don't have to wonder if the OS is smart enough to know what I want.

A dedicated flashlight button alongside a handful of smart home toggles will await a single press from my thumb for activation, and a quick glance at the Strava health data from my OnePlus Watch 3 will keep me motivated to get moving. Oh, and don't forget the quick voice memo button in Google Keep that makes it handy to take a note at any time.

Meanwhile, my home screen will be reserved for more sensitive data like actual, scrollable notes, a quick glance at the latest emails and messages that just came in, as well as a little photo frame filled with my favorite memories. Widgets are wonderful, and I'm beyond delighted to see Google start caring about them again, especially in a day in age when Good Lock makes it easy to fully customize the living crap out of my home and lock screens!