Do you think Apple will ever allow home screen widgets?

[shenfrey]

The only feature (in my OPINION) that even remotely sways me towards ever picking up an Android device, are the home screen widgets. I think it makes the android operating system both functional but also more aesthetically pleasing. I would love to have a google search bar on my home screen for example.

 

[ardchoille50]

I would think that home screen widgets would be detrimental to battery life. And I would think background app refresh would have to be enabled for the relevant widget to update. Many people, myself included, keep background app refresh off for individual apps in order to lengthen battery life.

 

[shenfrey]

Do you think Apple will ever allow home screen widgets?

I would think that home screen widgets would be detrimental to battery life. And I would think background app refresh would have to be enabled for the relevant widget to update. Many people, myself included, keep background app refresh off for individual apps in order to lengthen battery life.

My old HTC M8 had good and in some cases even much better battery life than my iPhone 6 plus. And I don't think the battery sizes are dramatically different.

 

[Mildredop]

I would think that home screen widgets would be detrimental to battery life. And I would think background app refresh would have to be enabled for the relevant widget to update. Many people, myself included, keep background app refresh off for individual apps in order to lengthen battery life.

As an Android user, my battery easily lasts a day and a half, sometimes two days, so widgets don't affect my battery life.

 

[petvas]

My old HTC M8 had good and in some cases even much better battery life than my iPhone 6 plus. And I don't think the battery sizes are dramatically different.

As an owner of both devices I wonder, how did you manage to have more than 5-6 hours on screen time with the M8? I get almost ten hours with my iPhone Plus, so I don't really understand how you can get better battery on the M8...

 

[shenfrey]

As an owner of both devices I wonder, how did you manage to have more than 5-6 hours on screen time with the M8? I get almost ten hours with my iPhone Plus, so I don't really understand how you can get better battery on the M8...

I'm glad you asked mate, I used a custom rom called Android Revolution HD, it's very simple to install. I can fetch you a link if you like?

 

[richwoodrocket]

No, this will never happen.

 

[shenfrey]

No, this will never happen.

Care to elaborate on this?

 

[Jessica Lares]

I don't think it'll ever happen either. I was totally into it when I had my Android devices, but I enjoy the Today widgets a lot more. The weather information and Power Toggle shortcuts made more sense in the notifications panel too.

 

[C DM]

They might add something like glances that the watch has and that might be off to the side like where spotlight used to be, but not likely that there would be something in the home screen itself.

 

[Will22]

As an owner of both devices I wonder, how did you manage to have more than 5-6 hours on screen time with the M8? I get almost ten hours with my iPhone Plus, so I don't really understand how you can get better battery on the M8...

I had an M8 for a few months when it came out and the battery was fantastic considering the size of it. 5-6 hours was easy. How are you measuring the screen on time on your 6+?

As for the widgets using battery I don't find much of a difference in battery if I have my widgets updating every 30 minutes or every couple of hours so I don't think they are that heavy on battery.

 

[lagwagon]

Making more live icons like the clock and calendar would be a better solution rather than having giant ugly widgets or glances. Example being having the weather app actually show the temp and cloudy/raining/snowing/sunny/day/night instead of the static weather icon.

 

[Abazigal]

Care to elaborate on this?

Apple seems to treat the home screen as a glorified app launcher that you use to go from one app to another. As such, you are not expected to spend too much time staring at your home screen (or any widget that happens to reside on it); the bulk of your usage time would be in one app or the other.

That they further introduce widgets that reside in your notifications shade seem to drive this belief home even further.

That Android does it shows that there isn't really any technological barrier to implementing this. As with many of their design choices, from the 1 USB port on the Macbook to lack of CD-drives on a Mac desktop, this decision seems purely philosophical.