Here's How Interactive Widgets Work in macOS Sonoma

[StellarVixen]

Absolutely!

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My goodness. Look at the variety of styles and colors.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

This is one of the nicest additions to macOS along with the new lockscreen and the animated wallpapers.

It tempts me to buy an M2 mac, but I'll be strong and wait until the M3 or M4 generation with my 2014 mac mini. Monterey runs great on it (8GB RAM + 1TB SSD)

OCLP )

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

We know it, they know it, and the American people know it. JUST put Dashboard back already! 🙄 I'll trade my F3 key! Make it trigger Dashboard instead of Launchpad - something that I've used like 4 times. (Then apologize to Konfabulator for whatchya did!)

Dashboard? Never heard of it , gotta check out !

 

[svish]

Good to see these new interactive widgets on macOS.

 

[gwhizkids]

I totally don't care for widgets cluttering my desktop. In a world full of shiny screens constantly screaming information at you, the last thing we need on our computers is even more distractions.

Then don’t install them.

 

[Damian83]

Once upon a time the dashboard, i liked it, i had few but useful widgets, and i was fine with them. Then, dont remember in which macos, uncle cook decided its useless, removed it, and replaced it with interactive widgets on notification center. I spent months to find worthy substitutes to my favourite dashboard widgets. I even paid some of them. Then in the next macos, uncle cook, again, decided to remove the notification center interactivity, making all my widgets useless. I had to find apps that stay in the upper bar to replace them. Now, again, uncle cook decides to bring back interactive widgets, then, again and again, will remove them in 1-2 years. No thanks!

 

[Janichsan]

Sounds a lot like an updated version of Dashboard.

Sounds like an updated version of Konfabulator.

 

[orionquest]

Yaaa more crap to turn off.
Basically dashboard 2.0.

 

[xaqt93]

Yaaa more crap to turn off.
Basically dashboard 2.0.

Haha...It's an opt in feature. You don't have to turn anything off if you don't want to use it. Haha.

 

[Elmo1938]

very interesting. but; I can't remember what I had for breakfast. These "how to" articles would be more useful after the updated software is released.

 

[Biro]

Easy response: just don’t add any widgets. Problem solved.

Not sure why you would deny this to all the rest of us who actually like this feature though.

Like all those who like the App Library in iOS? I might feel better about this if I could totally turn off the App Library. I've said this numerous times before but it's time for Apple to offer Lite versions of MacOS and iOS. Too many annoying features of questionable value while the basic operation of the software keeps getting buggier and buggier.

 

[BlackBun]

Absolutely!

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I would have a nervous breakdown if my home screen looked like this. Maybe if they were really, really tiny and I could stick them right out of the way!🤔

 

[Makosuke]

Positive: I used, liked, and miss Dashboard, so it's cool to see a variant of it return. Being able to share a hot-corner with a show-desktop shortcut is also efficient if you want to see all of it.

Negative: It seems like this will not interact well for those of us whose desktop routinely ends up being a solid wall of screenshots and temporary file icons. Hopefully there either is or will be a way to pretty much replicate Dashboard by letting them live elsewhere, although I guess I could take this as encouragement to clean up my dang desktop.

 

[gwhizkids]

Positive: I used, liked, and miss Dashboard, so it's cool to see a variant of it return. Being able to share a hot-corner with a show-desktop shortcut is also efficient if you want to see all of it.

Negative: It seems like this will not interact well for those of us whose desktop routinely ends up being a solid wall of screenshots and temporary file icons. Hopefully there either is or will be a way to pretty much replicate Dashboard by letting them live elsewhere, although I guess I could take this as encouragement to clean up my dang desktop.

Or use the Stage Manager feature that hides all of your desktop icons.

 

[zoozx]

Where are the new emoji's ?????

 

[adrianlondon]

Where are the new emoji's ?????

In the widgets? Eh?

 

[Playfoot]

So, to summarise, a half hearted attempt to bring back the functionality of Dashboard.....?

 

[kkee]

What's good about these (and yes, they're available on Intel macs - it's what I have) is that they're widgets from my phone's apps.

They keep themselves updated by magic (I have Bluetooth turned off on my phone and laptop). OK, it's via iCloud of course.

For example, I have desktop widgets now from iOS apps Readdle Calendars and Pedometer. They keep in sync with the phone.

Hint: Turn on the monochrome mode for widgets in Settings. They look great. You can duplicate them (in colour) in the Notification Centre thing if you wish.

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Mono is the way to go for decluttering the clutters. It actually looks clean on my desktop. I also use iPhone widgets (the sync is instant). Apple is going hard on continuity in preparation for Vision Pro.

 

[MagicHAM]

I actually like this. Having the calendar and reminders on my desktop would help with my memory . Even though I use it on phone, for me, this would be perfect So I don’t have to keep reaching out for my iPad or iPhone.

 

[jonnysods]

Can you pick which monitor you want them on in a multiple monitor set up? Would be pretty slick if you can!

 

[Joosst]

Dashboard had actual useful widgets like a calculator, a unit converter and sticky notes...
Does anyone think that usefulness will return?

With this new implementation it seems like developers can't just make a stand-alone widget anymore? It's basically a big icon that leads to an app? So a stand-alone sticky note is probably not even possible?

I'm still super annoyed they killed off dashboard. Slamming your cursor in a corner was by far the quickest way to get to a calculator.

 

[gwhizkids]

Can you pick which monitor you want them on in a multiple monitor set up? Would be pretty slick if you can!

Yes you can! And it’s as good as you are suggesting. I put stuff I want to monitor on my second display.

 

[gwhizkids]

Dashboard had actual useful widgets like a calculator, a unit converter and sticky notes...
Does anyone think that usefulness will return?

With this new implementation it seems like developers can't just make a stand-alone widget anymore? It's basically a big icon that leads to an app? So a stand-alone sticky note is probably not even possible?

I'm still super annoyed they killed off dashboard. Slamming your cursor in a corner was by far the quickest way to get to a calculator.

These are interactive widgets. So that usefulness - and more - will return.

 

[Playfoot]

Dashboard had actual useful widgets like a calculator, a unit converter and sticky notes...
Does anyone think that usefulness will return?

With this new implementation it seems like developers can't just make a stand-alone widget anymore? It's basically a big icon that leads to an app? So a stand-alone sticky note is probably not even possible?

I'm still super annoyed they killed off dashboard. Slamming your cursor in a corner was by far the quickest way to get to a calculator.

Highly doubt we would ever see a return to one, the functionality, two the community support for widget design. Likely either locked down or just too darn complicated for wide spread community support.

Claims interactive, but at this point must assume severely constrained.

 

[jonnysods]

Yes you can! And it’s as good as you are suggesting. I put stuff I want to monitor on my second display.

Nice! So you're running the beta? I really want to try the public beta but I'm afraid to on my main machine as I count on it so much....