Lock Screen Widgets.
Zachary Wander

Apple tree introduced lock screen widgets for the iPhone in iOS 16. Android is known for beingness highly customizable, but it doesn't have the same feature. Well, non officially—but that doesn't have to terminate us.

Android actually supported lock screen widgets long before the iPhone did. It was officially added style back in 2012 with Android 4.2 Jelly Edible bean. All the same, the characteristic was removed two versions afterwards with Android 5.0 Lollipop. Then permit's bring it back.

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Lock Screen Widgets for Android

Since Android doesn't officially support lock screen widgets, we'll need the help of a 3rd-political party app. Keep in mind that this is a bit of a hacky method, so it may not work perfectly. The app we'll exist using is called "Lockscreen Widgets," and it costs $1.49.

Afterwards installing the app, you'll be greeted with a few pages of introduction. The first thing to do is grant the app accessibility access in order to display on the lock screen. Tap "More Info" and then "Grant" to become to Android's Accessibility bill of fare and enable it.

Enable the Accessibility Service.

Back in the app, the next permission is for notification listening. This allows Lockscreen Widgets to hide the widgets when you have notifications on the lock screen. Tap "Grant" and so enable Lockscreen Widgets in the settings. This is optional.

Enable notification listening.

The next permission is for accessing media on your device. This is used to find your wallpaper and create a "mask" backside the widgets. You don't need to use this characteristic if yous don't want to.

Grant access to media.

Lastly, if you want to make certain Lockscreen Widgets isn't closed in the background, you can tap the "More Info" button for details about how to exclude the app from "bombardment optimizations."

Exclude app from battery optimizations.

Now we tin first adding widgets to the lock screen! First, toggle on the "Enabled" switch and tap "Add together Widget."

Enable widgets and tap "Add Widget."

Scroll through the list of widgets and tap the one you'd like to add. Echo this to add multiple widgets to the lock screen.

Select a widget to add.

Tap "Preview" to see how the widget will look on the lock screen. Tap the widget with 2 fingers to bring upward the editing options—tap with two fingers again to hide them.

Widget editing options.

If y'all added multiple widgets, y'all tin can swipe horizontally to page through them. Long-press a widget to tap the reddish minus icon to remove information technology.

Swipe through multiple widgets.

Next, nosotros'll take a peek at the "Settings."

Go to "Settings."

You'll want to experiment a bit with these settings to observe what works best with your lock screen. We'll highlight a couple of things yous might desire to do. First, under the "Appearance" section is "Masked Fashion." This is nice if yous want the widgets to comprehend elements on the lock screen, like the clock.

Masked Mode.

Nether the "Visibility" section, you lot may want to enable "Hibernate When Showing Notifications" and "Hide on Security Input." You can as well hide the widget when the notification shade is expanded.

Visibility options.

Again, every lock screen is slightly different, and then you'll desire to spend some time tweaking things to make it await good with yours. Y'all tin can utilize the two-finger gesture to bring up the editing controls from the lock screen as well.

Lock Screen Widgets in action.

That should be enough to get you started! Since this is non an official method, y'all'll probably run into some wonkiness hither and in that location, but it'due south a pretty proficient solution. Apple and Google love to "share" ideas, maybe Google volition call up lock screen widgets soon.

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