Smartphones & Tablets | September 26, 2023
Android 14 has been delayed and is expected to be launched at Google’s new product presentation event. An update that will reintroduce widgets on the lock screen among some other new features. This functionality was present in the world’s most widely used operating system almost from the beginning and is now making a grand return.
Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, allowed the addition of widgets to the lock screen. It was a different time for the operating system and also caused excessive battery drain on mobile devices. This concept has been revisited by Apple in its iPhones, but it used to be a common feature on any Android device.
The resurrection of this functionality is related to its integration into iOS 16 for iPhones. Samsung, as is often the case, beat Android to it by including widgets on the lock screen through the LockStar Good Lock module that anyone can install on their Galaxy phones. Google doesn’t want to be left behind, and now the code has appeared in the Android 14 QPR1 beta.
This new version, set to arrive on Pixel phones in the December “Feature Drop” of this year, was released a couple of days ago. Mishaal Rahman has found some lines of code related to these widgets, which will be available to owners of the new Pixels, including the upcoming Pixel 8a (which has already appeared in a leak with images).
There’s a new ‘SystemUI Flag’ with the label ‘widget_on_keyguard.’ It’s a piece of code that doesn’t provide details about its features, but it’s an indicator that Google is experimenting with widget functionality on the lock screen in Android 14 for its Pixel phones. Its mere appearance shows that Google doesn’t want to miss out on a trend that is mainly being driven by Apple and Samsung.
Support for this feature would allow Samsung Galaxy phones, according to Android Police, to also benefit from it since it would be native to the system. Whether other manufacturers will adopt it will depend more on their development efforts, as it initially seems unlikely that low or mid-range phones will be able to enjoy this Android 14 novelty. This is because it has appeared in the beta of the next Pixel “Feature Drop,” an update they receive periodically with exclusive features.
