I second this. When I had my Note 4 they were all I used. Well, aside from the odd reddit feed.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Widgets - Use them ? iOS & Android
- Thread starter MRU
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I second this. When I had my Note 4 they were all I used. Well, aside from the odd reddit feed.
What I like is that I can have as many widgets as I want on iOS, and they don't clutter up the home screen because they are hidden behind another screen. It's also quite easy to access them from the lock screen without needing to unlock my phone first. Handy when I want to view my step count (pedometer) or check my data usage (dataman).
I am curious as to how widgets work on Android. How would you manage them if you wanted 7-8 widgets on your phone?
What you described is the very reason widgets are more useful on Android. I can have a weather widget on my home screen that is so easy for me to glance at whenever i want. No need to do anything. It has the weeks weather for me on the screen I spend most of my time on. Widgets do not clutter the screen on Android anymore than the icons you have on IOS.....except I can move the widgets and position them anywhere i want and in any order I want them to be in. You can't do that on IOS with icons so don't know where the cutter comment comes from. I have a Google search widget on my Nexus 6 that is waiting for me to speak "OK Google" and it will do just about anything i need it to do. No need to touch anything.
Same exists on Android. Many apps also allow widgets in the notification dropdown. And can be access on the lock screen the same. I myself feel weird calling them widgets though, I refer to them as app extensions.
I personally hate a cluttered notification dropdown.
Widgets come in many sizes and many can be resized. Just place them where you want, like furniture in a home. You can have one homescreen dedicated to one widget or multiple widgets on a home screen.
Whether it's cluttered or not depends on the user.
On Android, I used mostly HD Widgets, Power Toggles, and a few others. I enjoy them on iOS a lot more though.
On my iPhone:
Launcher
Row 1 - Apple ID info in 1Password, Send a text message to my brother, Run my note Workflow, View the iCloud Documents Picker (Workflow), Upload the last photo I took to iCloud (Workflow)
Row 2 - Shortcuts to all my different tags in nvNotes
Row 3 - Timers for various things I have setup in Clepsydra
Swiptly
Post-it notes of just various lists of things
On my iPod:
Ecoute
Their Up Next today widget
Launcher
Using Ecoute's URL scheme for shortcuts to various things
Swiptly
For noting errors in my library, and a list of stuff from my MixRadio mixes
On my iPad:
Gerty
Add to current book widget
On my iPhone:
Launcher
Row 1 - Apple ID info in 1Password, Send a text message to my brother, Run my note Workflow, View the iCloud Documents Picker (Workflow), Upload the last photo I took to iCloud (Workflow)
Row 2 - Shortcuts to all my different tags in nvNotes
Row 3 - Timers for various things I have setup in Clepsydra
Swiptly
Post-it notes of just various lists of things
On my iPod:
Ecoute
Their Up Next today widget
Launcher
Using Ecoute's URL scheme for shortcuts to various things
Swiptly
For noting errors in my library, and a list of stuff from my MixRadio mixes
On my iPad:
Gerty
Add to current book widget
I use 5 widgets
1) clock + weather widget. This is a habit from the old HTC clock widget days and I'll freely admit it is kind of superfluous. But I like the way it looks and it gives me a big touch target shortcut for setting my alarms when I am sleepy.
2) huge calendar widget in month view. This is important to me. My schedule is such that I need to plan my days on a weekly basis and it is very useful to see my entire month at a glance very quickly.
3) favorite contacts shortcut. I like not having to dive into contacts or the dialer to text or call my most frequent contact and I find this much cleaner than the iOS solution in multitasking.
4) google keep widget. The widget is mostly for grocery lists that I can see quickly using the widget.
5) google sound search widget to ID random songs I encounter. This is another example of an action I need to be able to access very quickly but don't use often enough to have a single app shortcut dedicated to it on my main screen. Its hard to describe but a app shortcut that is seldom used is very difficult to find quickly when you need it. A larger widget on a non-main screen is much easier and faster to find.
1) clock + weather widget. This is a habit from the old HTC clock widget days and I'll freely admit it is kind of superfluous. But I like the way it looks and it gives me a big touch target shortcut for setting my alarms when I am sleepy.
2) huge calendar widget in month view. This is important to me. My schedule is such that I need to plan my days on a weekly basis and it is very useful to see my entire month at a glance very quickly.
3) favorite contacts shortcut. I like not having to dive into contacts or the dialer to text or call my most frequent contact and I find this much cleaner than the iOS solution in multitasking.
4) google keep widget. The widget is mostly for grocery lists that I can see quickly using the widget.
5) google sound search widget to ID random songs I encounter. This is another example of an action I need to be able to access very quickly but don't use often enough to have a single app shortcut dedicated to it on my main screen. Its hard to describe but a app shortcut that is seldom used is very difficult to find quickly when you need it. A larger widget on a non-main screen is much easier and faster to find.
Power Widgets are amazing on my Note 3, they make several things so much smoother (insta turning on the wifi hotspot FTW). Also I have a widget that puts a really gorgeous calendar right on one of my homescreens, I just swipe left and it's there: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.syncedsynapse.eventflowwidget
Widgets on iOS (iP6+ is my daily driver) are a completely different world I feel, because they're simply not there at first glance on the homescreen. And in any case no apps I use have any really well thought out and useful widgets. There's only a single one that is of any real use to me. This is a phone/address search app for my country (Sweden) which pulls up the search info from any phone number you currently have copied to memory. This is pretty handy - you select the number, choose copy and then just swipe down and you see who called.
Other than that, I'm quite unimpressed by iOS widgets so far.
Widgets on iOS (iP6+ is my daily driver) are a completely different world I feel, because they're simply not there at first glance on the homescreen. And in any case no apps I use have any really well thought out and useful widgets. There's only a single one that is of any real use to me. This is a phone/address search app for my country (Sweden) which pulls up the search info from any phone number you currently have copied to memory. This is pretty handy - you select the number, choose copy and then just swipe down and you see who called.
Other than that, I'm quite unimpressed by iOS widgets so far.
Android has that. I have some of 7 of mine in the pull down and accessible via the lock screen, 7 other larger ones I have spread out across 5 pages. Not cluttered at all. Main Page has Weather, a Julian Calender that links to my main calender and Rain Alarm. I have my Google Sound/Cards on page two, A nice handle email widget on Page 3, Page 4 is a gorgeous calender, page 5 is my Countdown list to various dates and events.
On Android, I currently use two widgets.
- Agenda (Business Calendar 2)
- Weather (BBC Weather)
I like having this info at a glance on my main homescreen. Homescreen widgets are a key reason I use Android phones.
On iOS I don't use any widgets and have not been interested in exploring them. I think the main reason is I don't consider my iOS device (iPad mini) to be an information tool like my phone. I just use it for reading, web browsing, movies, and music.
- Agenda (Business Calendar 2)
- Weather (BBC Weather)
I like having this info at a glance on my main homescreen. Homescreen widgets are a key reason I use Android phones.
On iOS I don't use any widgets and have not been interested in exploring them. I think the main reason is I don't consider my iOS device (iPad mini) to be an information tool like my phone. I just use it for reading, web browsing, movies, and music.
i have "widgets" on ios, but i really dont use them at all. some widgets that people like alot, like launcher for example, is nice to have but.. for me is useless. i tend to keep icons of apps i use daily on the dock. instead of pulling-scrolling -thing, it is much easier just to tap the icon on the dock or on the homescreen. until i can jb (not semi) or ios get real widgets, i dont feel they are as handy as on android. at first i kept alot of widgets but then i got frustrated of scrolling up and down and it looks abit messy too... im waiting the day when widgets works like they can be used on android.