What's the point of widgets?

[drexappeal]

You just showed examples of widgets that only mimic apps' UI.
I mean, you can get to the actual apps with 1 tap and have all that functionality but you decided to switch to a situation where you'll need 1 or more swipe(s) to get there (vs. 1 tap if those apps were in your home screen) and more RAM is used for the widgets.

What's the advantage of having your bookmarks displayed one or more swipes away for example when Chrome is 1 tap away in your home screen or in task-switcher anyway? I know it might require more taps to get to the bookmarks list but this is just one of the reasons why I use the Opera browser.

Since my last post I noticed right now that you actually can create shortcuts to a specific part of the app (it is just not implemented by the stock launchers) but it could become a mainstream feature that could make widgets be even less used if supported well by app developers (according to my thought about widgets being useful when you want to access something deeper in an app).

In my usage I ended up getting rid of all the widgets that came by default in the home screens of my Android smartphone (per my first post in this topic) and that's the reason why I searched for a topic like that. For example I'd be very satisfied already with the clock from the lock screen -> Blinkfeed / app drawer from the new HTC One, and that would leave my widget usage to solely the handy (but not mandatory for a fair experience) Notes app's one.

PS. Yes I can see the cool, easy to customize and aesthetic factor, but not exactly productivity (faster use of software) that's why I dropped my comments here. (Don't take them so seriously, I'm not trying to extinguish widgets or something.)
I guess everyone have their own needs and wants.

Note: I see a lot of Android fans bashing iOS/WP a lot because they lack widgets yet I'd safely assure these users they aren't missing anything that significant in this regard.

Ok. I didn't post necessarily for your approval or justification, just for people that would find the usefulness based on how they might think. I'm not actually taking your comments that seriously at all, but obviously your long winded replies are out to prove a point, so it's important for people to know the options because contrary to what you migyt think, not everyone thinks the same.

I personally find this way more useful than clicking open the browser, then clicking menu, then bookmarks then scrolling through my different folders. On the widget, I can click through all the folders directly without having to wait for a browser refresh and go directly to a website I want to check quickly. Waiting for browser refresh to filter load all my bookmarks takes much longer. With the agenda/calendar widget, I can scroll up and down through the widget without needing to enter the calendar app. That'much more efficient than opening the calendar app and hovering over each day to see all the appointments for each day. The feed is the same thing. I can scroll through a bunch of twitter and facebook posts without ever needing to go into either app. You already contradicted yourself by saying "it may require more clicks." I don't feel that more clicks is either faster or more convenient.

As far as RAM usage, what difference does it make if it doesn't bog down performance or battery life? It sure doesn't for me.

Here's the bottom line. You don't like widgets and don't see logic in them...we get that. Congratulations and good for you, but don't presume that your theories apply to anyones train of thought, just because you say so.

 

[rafaelluik]

If you don't like widgets, you're free to not use them. But I have many apps on my device, so I have to swipe any way to get to them, then click to open them. A widget just requires a swipe.

If it's in the next home screen left or right, otherwise it's 2+ swipes. And folders may remove the necessity of swipes through home screens to open apps.

I personally find this way more useful than clicking open the browser, then clicking menu, then bookmarks then scrolling through my different folders. On the widget, I can click through all the folders directly without having to wait for a browser refresh and go directly to a website I want to check quickly. Waiting for browser refresh to filter load all my bookmarks takes much longer.

What's a "refresh"? That's because Chrome is the crappiest browser for Android. hehe

Widgets: 1 or more swipes to get to the widget -> tap bookmark.
Opera's Speed Dial (features folders): tap Opera icon -> tap the page you want to go.
Shortcut*: a shortcut would be able to open "any" browser directly in the bookmarks page -> tap bookmark.

No advantages to the widget.
*A mainstream implementation of these kinds of shortcuts that can open an app in a pre-defined screen (like Google Maps's Local and Navigation shortcuts, but per user choice of creating the shortcut) would make operation just as fast or faster than reaching a widget.

With the agenda/calendar widget, I can scroll up and down through the widget without needing to enter the calendar app. That'much more efficient than opening the calendar app and hovering over each day to see all the appointments for each day.

My Calendar app has an agenda view.

The feed is the same thing. I can scroll through a bunch of twitter and facebook posts without ever needing to go into either app.

I can see the advantage of combined streams but an app would also be able to do that, so in the same way you wouldn't need to go into either app.

You already contradicted yourself by saying "it may require more clicks." I don't feel that more clicks is either faster or more convenient.

Indeed *more* clicks wouldn't be any more faster or convenient, and I haven't said that. More swipes are even more awkward. Horizontal swipes, the requirement to getting into widgets.

A swipe is an interaction that needs more time in contact with the screen and movement (with some sort of precision), a tap is faster and easier to perform.

As far as RAM usage, what difference does it make if it doesn't bog down performance or battery life? It sure doesn't for me.

More reloading of apps throw out of memory due to RAM usage by other apps affect battery life and performance.

 

[drexappeal]

If it's in the next home screen left or right, otherwise it's 2+ swipes. And folders may remove the necessity of swipes through home screens to open apps.

What's a "refresh"? That's because Chrome is the crappiest browser for Android. hehe

Widgets: 1 or more swipes to get to the widget -> tap bookmark.
Opera's Speed Dial (features folders): tap Opera icon -> tap the page you want to go.
Shortcut*: a shortcut would be able to open "any" browser directly in the bookmarks page -> tap bookmark.

No advantages to the widget.
*A mainstream implementation of these kinds of shortcuts that can open an app in a pre-defined screen (like Google Maps's Local and Navigation shortcuts, but per user choice of creating the shortcut) would make operation just as fast or faster than reaching a widget.

My Calendar app has an agenda view.

I can see the advantage of combined streams but an app would also be able to do that, so in the same way you wouldn't need to go into either app.

Indeed *more* clicks wouldn't be any more faster or convenient, and I haven't said that. More swipes are even more awkward. Horizontal swipes, the requirement to getting into widgets.

A swipe is an interaction that needs more time in contact with the screen and movement (with some sort of precision), a tap is faster and easier to perform.

More reloading of apps throw out of memory due to RAM usage by other apps affect battery life and performance.

So you never use pinch to view all home screens?

Cool for you. Do your thing. You done with the soapbox?

 

[ocnbrze]

hey guys

first off i moved this thread to the android lounge, since this is not really device related.

second i use widgets a lot. my favorite is the score widget. it shows me all of the sports scores relative to me. i also use the play music widget to quickly get to my music without having to launch the app for it.

it has its useage, but agree that some do not. it is more of a personal thing.

 

[nickdalzell]

RAM use isn't a problem for any recent Android device. The only time Android can actually crash due to out of memory is on some older device with very limited RAM.

 

[chanchan05]

If it's in the next home screen left or right, otherwise it's 2+ swipes. And folders may remove the necessity of swipes through home screens to open apps.

So you want one homescreen full of folders? Kinda like an iPhone? Good for you. I don't want one like that. Its very similar anyway. Tap on a folder, scroll to look for the app you want if there's a lot of them. One swipe or two, doesn't really matter. Plus, there's a jump to homescreen function on many launchers. I can jump from screen 1 to screen 5 out 7 by one click.

What's a "refresh"? That's because Chrome is the crappiest browser for Android. hehe

Not sure what phone you have, but I've tried Dolphin, Firefox, Opera, Boat, Maxthon, and Chrome is faster. Plus Opera is so outdated in page rendering for mobile. Some sites still display the non-touch optimized version of their mobile sites. I hate that.

Widgets: 1 or more swipes to get to the widget -> tap bookmark.
Opera's Speed Dial (features folders): tap Opera icon -> tap the page you want to go.
Shortcut*: a shortcut would be able to open "any" browser directly in the bookmarks page -> tap bookmark.

On Chrome mine opens straight to bookmarks. So yeah, tap Chrome, tap the page you want to go. For widgets: Tap the screen where the widget is, tap the page I want to go to.

No advantages to using or not using a widget.

My Calendar app has an agenda view.

In your case, where you want everything in a folder on one homescreen, that would be: open folder>open calendar app>agenda view (or scroll down to see the agenda for the day at the bottom of the calendar). On a widget, tap to screen number>tap on agenda view.

Indeed *more* clicks wouldn't be any more faster or convenient, and I haven't said that. More swipes are even more awkward. Horizontal swipes, the requirement to getting into widgets.

A swipe is an interaction that needs more time in contact with the screen and movement (with some sort of precision), a tap is faster and easier to perform.

Depends on the launcher. A swipe does not need to encompass the width of the screen to work. I use Nova Prime, and I can swipe a centimeter to any direction and the screen moves. much just like a tap.

More reloading of apps throw out of memory due to RAM usage by other apps affect battery life and performance.

Depends on your phone. If you are using a low end phone, maybe, perhaps. Personally haven't experienced any such difference.

You want an advantage of widgets? On one tap to jump to a particular homescreen, I can see weather data and predictions, my schedule, and a news feed rss. On your shortcut/folder based UI, that needs at least 10 taps I think. To get in a folder, to get in an app, to get out of an app, then transferring to another app, etc. Tedious.

 

[Stuntman]

I'm glad I found this topic and it still has some kind of recent activity.
I searched the web for it and I really can't see the point of widgets either.

Widgets are like apps in that there are a lot of them that I find to be useless, but there are a few that I do find really useful. It depends on what you personally like or need. I'll give you examples of the widgets that I find to be useful to me.

On my centre home screen I have the following widgets: Volume Widget, SoundHound (shortcut), Seesmic (shortcut) and The Weather Channel. The Volume Widget is 1x2. This widget has 4 areas that I can tap on. Three of them switches my phone to one of 3 sound profiles. The 4th one goes into the settings. I have 3 sound profiles for 3 different situations: Sleep, Normal and Loud. The Sleep sound profile has notification sounds turned off while the alarm and ringer are still on. That way, emails will not wake me, but the alarm and phone calls will. The other two profiles have the sound set to a normal loudness or max depending on whether I'm in a noisy environment or not. This widget is immensely useful because to adjust these settings manually will take too many taps. The volume rockers can adjust the volume, but you cannot use the volume rocker to make notifications silent while keeping the alarm and ringer on.

The SoundHound shortcut is a single icon that with a single tap can launch SoundHound and have it start identifying the song. Often, if I her a song, like on TV, there may not be much time to get my phone out and launch the app and then activate the song recognition. A single tap makes it just convenient.

My Seesmic shortcut is an icon that launches my Twitter list for Traffic with a single tap. I have the local radio stations' Twitter feeds in this list. If I had to do this with the Twitter app, it takes a number of taps. The shortcut is more convenient and faster.

The Weather Channel widget I use I resize to 1 x 3. It shows the current temperature and conditions plus a picture icon and hi/low of the forcast for both today and tomorrow. This is sometimes enough. If I want more info like long range forecasts or radar imagery, I tap the widget to launch the app.

I do use a Twitter feed widget and Calendar widget by Android Pro Widgets. These are 5x4. I find them to be rather convenient to put on my home screens and I like the style of them. As my centre home screen is full, accessing these would require a swipe to a second home screen anyway. My Twitter feed is on the first home screen to the right. My calendar/agenda widget is on the second right home screen.

On my first left home screen, I have the clock widget with a second hand. I find it convenient to use the second hand at times. I also have TheScore Mobile widget. This widget shows sports scores. It is convenient to see the scores on the widget. The widget is set to show the score of my home teams. I can tap to quickly scroll through the scores or launch the app for more detailed info such as scoring summary.

On my second left home screen, the widgets I have are the Battery Widget Reborn graph, WiFi Hotspot control and FlashLight widget. I find I always like to see the graph of my battery usage and this widget is very useful to me. The WiFi hotspot control is useful to be able to activate it with a single tap. The same with the flash light.

These are what I personally use and find either useful and/or nice to look at. Some of them are immensely more convenient than either launching an app or going through the setting.

I do find that there are many widgets that I find are really useless. Some are useless to me. Many others I feel are not useful for the amount of screen real estate it takes up. If a widget is going to take a significant amount of space, it better be worth taking up that space.

One other thing I should mention is that I am using the Nova Prime launcher. I have my home screen configured with no dock and to be 6x4 (rows x columns). I have a total of 5 home screens with this configuration. In addition to widgets, I also do place app icons in folders. If I were to replace all of my widgets with just app icons, I would need 3 home screens. I would lose some functionality. The Volume Widget is something I haven't seen an app for that does what it can do. The same for some power controls. I guess someone could make apps that do those functions instead of widgets.

 

[Hadron]

I must confess I hate covering homescreens in app launchers or folders. I'm the same with computers: my desktops are completely bare, as to me they're the places I run apps rather than an ad hoc shortcut store.

So I'm more or less the opposite of rafaelluik. On my phone I keep some folders in a rotating dock, one homescreen has just a couple of really essential app launchers, and otherwise my desktops have widgets only (one or two per desktop - don't like it looking too cluttered). Most are information, e.g. todo list, agenda, live train timetable, free internal storage (a bugbear of my ancient device ).

Personal preferences. I like having information on my desktops, and feel I did the "grid of app launchers" thing with PDAs in the '90s. But if others prefer it another way, then that's fine - we should each use what works best for us.

 

[nancybout]

I like them for accessing the most request apps etc I use. I however only have 3-4... mostly three pages I keep open. Sometimes just 2 lol. .I keep it simple

 

[nickdalzell]

I can play or skip/pause music without the extra steps like unlocking and launching the app, then hitting skip or pause. I got most commonly accessed info (weather,date, music controls, toggles for wifi, airplane mode,sync, on my locksceen via widgetlocker

 

[drexappeal]

I must confess I hate covering homescreens in app launchers or folders. I'm the same with computers: my desktops are completely bare, as to me they're the places I run apps rather than an ad hoc shortcut store.

So I'm more or less the opposite of rafaelluik. On my phone I keep some folders in a rotating dock, one homescreen has just a couple of really essential app launchers, and otherwise my desktops have widgets only (one or two per desktop - don't like it looking too cluttered). Most are information, e.g. todo list, agenda, live train timetable, free internal storage (a bugbear of my ancient device ).

Personal preferences. I like having information on my desktops, and feel I did the "grid of app launchers" thing with PDAs in the '90s. But if others prefer it another way, then that's fine - we should each use what works best for us.

I'm almost the same. My PC's have no quick shortcuts on the desktop (just wallpaper to look at). That's why I'm so fond of transparent widgets. Visually, they don't block the background wallpaper, while at the same time still provide functionality at a quick glance. That's why my most used widgets are my scrollable widgets (e.g. Calendar Agenda, Social Network Newsfeed, Bookmarks). The only drawback to customizing the widgets to be transparent is, there's a slight limitation as to which wallpapers I use.

 

[rafaelluik]

I can play or skip/pause music without the extra steps like unlocking and launching the app, then hitting skip or pause. I got most commonly accessed info (weather,date, music controls, toggles for wifi, airplane mode,sync, on my locksceen via widgetlocker

My point is you can have music controls on lock screen (HTC Sense), or in the notification area (multiple manufacturers do this), and notification toggles. They're much more efficient because you can toggle settings without even leaving the app you're on.

Not sure what phone you have, but I've tried Dolphin, Firefox, Opera, Boat, Maxthon, and Chrome is faster. Plus Opera is so outdated in page rendering for mobile. Some sites still display the non-touch optimized version of their mobile sites. I hate that.

That's because of browser sniffing not Opera. Anyways now Opera uses Chromium rendering engines and very similar UA-String, these issues are gone.

In your case, where you want everything in a folder on one homescreen, that would be: open folder>open calendar app>agenda view (or scroll down to see the agenda for the day at the bottom of the calendar). On a widget, tap to screen number>tap on agenda view.

Not if the app can be configured to aways open in agenda view or there was a quick and easy way to set a shortcut that opens the app directly in agenda view (possible already in Android).

More reloading of apps throw out of memory due to RAM usage by other apps affect battery life and performance.

Depends on your phone. If you are using a low end phone, maybe, perhaps. Personally haven't experienced any such difference.

Nope, the loading of the widget will occur regardless. So it's a kind of redundancy if you have the widget loaded and also load the app at some point, 2 things loaded instead of one (the widget and the app instead of just the app). Also I was thinking that you can end up filling 2 GB of RAM if you don't restart your phone everyday or load a really heavy app or many tabs when web browsing perhaps. We're talking about something like 1% impact so it really doesn't matter...

Ok, anyway, I can see how widgets are an easy way to set up the execution of some tasks.

 

[missmouse3]

Am I the only one around here who doesn't see the point in widgets.
What am I missing?

no you are not! I also cant see what the difference is! I see all these little symbols on my phone but most do nothing when I press them anyway!
I can understand what an app is, but i cant see any difference in a widget
And then what on earth is a toggle?

 

[Rxpert83]

no you are not! I also cant see what the difference is! I see all these little symbols on my phone but most do nothing when I press them anyway!
I can understand what an app is, but i cant see any difference in a widget
And then what on earth is a toggle?

Put simply, widgets are areas of the screen that an app can display information without the app actually being opened. IE your clock or weather widget. Its good for quickly viewing important information

Toggles do just what the name implies, they turn on or off whatever they're designed to do (WiFi, GPS, data, ect). Think of toggling a light switch

 

[zuben el genub]

Can't believe I came across this thread. How can you not see the point of widgets?!?

I have lots of them. First up is the 'HD Widgets'. I have a really lovely clock / weather / date widget that takes up a lot of the first page.

Also there's a battery meter graph, BBC news widget, my email inbox widget, another news widget called appygeek, a favorite contacts widget, music player, cpu/free memory one, one s-note full page widget for a quick things to do list and one more in the status bar for a few more toggles.

I highly recommend nova launcher, since I can use landscape mode on the homescreen, and it just makes the layout of the homescreen so much better + gives so much customization, for example it lets you make use of the large screen by letting you choose the grid on the home screen - I have mine 7x5 and it makes all the difference, and every app / widget becomes resealable.

I'm the human, and I will decide what I want and when. The Widgets really don't have enough info for me. For weather, I want the whole nine yards, not just basic sunny, temp, etc.

I have apps I haven't updated since I got the phone. Either I don't need the apps all the time or the update is useless.

 

[mrex]

I use three "must-have-and-use" widgets in my Note 10.1.

Most important, essential widgets are on my homescreen: a calender and to-do notes. I really can't remember all my meetings and happenings, so i just check my homescreen and in few seconds Im able to see the whole month. I have lots of stuff to remember at work and in my life, so I need to make some to-do lists also. The calender widget on the homescreen has six to-do notes around it. Six for differend things to remember and to do. And still im forgetting to do some of them

On the second screen there is a mail widget. Easy to check mails... On the third screen have some other widgets, not important but make my life much easier. Those are handy, but not essential.

So why widgets? Because I can't remember everything, I need to keep my ideas, stuff, things etc. in order. A life without widget? Not a chance! Next time on a graveyard then...

 

[mikedt]

I get the idea of widgets. I use 3 of them myself.

Weather... to see currently prevailing weather conditions and temperature.

Dual time clock... to see current time in China and UK.

Music player... so I can quickly play some songs without having to open the full music player.

Now I thought a "toggle" was a type of button one finds on a duffle coat. Never heard that term used for smartphones before. An American or geek term?

 

[chanchan05]

I get the idea of widgets. I use 3 of them myself.

Weather... to see currently prevailing weather conditions and temperature.

Dual time clock... to see current time in China and UK.

Music player... so I can quickly play some songs without having to open the full music player.

Now I thought a "toggle" was a type of button one finds on a duffle coat. Never heard that term used for smartphones before. An American or geek term?

I think it's a geek term. I've been hearing it for years. I sort of showed up at the same time touch screen phones came in. My old Nokia 5800 was advertised to have an 'easy access connectivity toggle' if I remember correctly. Then on Android side, I first heard of this on the original Galaxy S with the notification shade toggles.

 

[zuben el genub]

A toggle is a switch used in electrical. It looks sorta like the joystick for some handheld games, but 2 position - on or off.

I had a row of these switches on the Spitfire after the electrical wiring fried. We just rehooked up almost every function to a toggle and turned it on or off as needed.

One for the lights, one for the parking lights, one for high beam and so on.

 

[nickdalzell]

a toggle is another term for a double-throw switch similar to a light switch in a house. i am not sure the origin of it. in Android, a toggle is an icon similar to a widget but often in a notification area section or inside a widget itself as in Power Control, that does an on-off function. some toggles are just icons that light up when turned on and are blank when off, others populate the settings menu and look like graphical representations of actual switches like in iOS as of Android 4.x:

Android:



iOS:



Toggles inside of a Widget: