ZAC Kew-Denniss / Android Authority
Google implements a large Android overhaul with expressive Material 3. This updated design language will be spread on applications and Android itself with the next Android 16 QPR1 update. And despite the update of most of its applications, Google again overlooks the widgets with this version, keeping the same old material that you design for many of them, while Apple and other Android OEM as Samsung have taken the design of widgets more seriously.
But if, like me, you would like to see a coherent vision of Google’s widgets with a touch of expressive equipment, you are lucky. I turned to the play store and I found it $ 1 set of 300+ material widgets which perfectly capture the latest Android design and add necessary pleasure to my home screen. Best game? I didn’t need KWGT to make it work.
Are you a fan of Material 3 Express so far?
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Configuration of equipment widgets
To get the most out of the equipment you have of widgets (yes, the name of the application feels dated now, but do not worry, the widgets themselves are all expressive), we must grant authorizations. The most important thing is to allow access to the background, allowing the application to operate in the background – even if you have not opened it – so that it can update things such as weather, device information, etc. For relevant widgets.
Everything else is explicit: choose the units, the time format, what is happening when you press widgets, etc. The one you want to concentrate is a padding of the widget. He dictates the size of non -reactive widgets (more about this later) in their placement on your home screen. If you use a personalized launcher with an unusual grid size, this cursor will help you if you find that the widgets are too small or cut.
In addition, when you plan your home screen, you must choose between square or responsive widgets. A square widget will maintain its shape, whatever the way you resize it in the grid, while a reagent will stretch to fill the available room you have given it. In my configuration, with the widgets that I like to use, I am especially stuck to Square.
Something to note is that the square widgets, confused, do not have to be square. All kinds of forms of the expressive library of material 3 are available; Here, Square refers to how the widget will behave.
My favorite widgets
On my ultra galaxy s24, I combined these widgets with one of the wallpapers included and the Pix Material Your Pack icon To make a purple theme which corresponds to the purple color in titanium on my phone. The Samsung launcher is a great place to use widgets like this, because widget batteries allow you to keep the functionality of other widgets without ruining the look, such as putting noise cancellation controls for my 3 pro buds in a battery with Google Search.
I have two battery widgets stacked together, one for my phone and one for my headphones, top left. There is also a smartwatch battery widget, but when I tried to use it, the widget showed the name of my Galaxy Watch 6, but did not show the level of the battery. I hope this is something that can be corrected in future updates.
The other widgets that I have appreciated so far are for quick parameters and Google search. I like to have quick access to my torch and sound profiles, and the different research widgets that this application all includes better than everything Google does right now, although it is not difficult.
A wide selection of widgets
As I mentioned at the start, there are 314 widgets in the application, there are therefore many options for your home screen to be perfect. More than 40 of these widgets have been added in an update in early August, so this collection is still being developed and is being developed. You have categories of widgets covering applications, battery, calendar, clock, headphones, watches, files, games, music, etc.
Widgets that add games to your home screen are also very fun. These allow you to play TIC TAC TOE against an AI opponent, provide a shortcut to the Dino game of Chrome and, my favorite, Snake. To play Snake, you have to place two widgets: the game itself and a pad controller. It works surprisingly well and is an easy way to spend a few seconds when you wait online and want to occupy your mind without tiktok scrolling.
A vision of what is (hopefully)
One of the most frustrating parts of a new design paradigm in Android is to wait until everything is catching up. It takes time to applications and other Android skins to adopt new versions of material design. This will undoubtedly be the case here with expressive, but the material that widgets package greatly contributes to easier waiting. My home screen is one of the most important parts of my phone, and these widgets are already bringing the Material 3 Expressive flavor to my Samsung phone at the moment.
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