Google presents its series of widgets for iOS 16

iOS 16 brings an important new feature to the iPhone: the ability to display small widgets on the lock screen. These allow faster access to information such as calendar appointments, the weather or the autonomy of your Apple Watch and your AirPods. This addition currently only works with Apple apps, but that should change soon.

Indeed, Google announced on its blog The Keyword that its engineers have developed different widgets for all its applications available on the App Store. This is the first third-party company to take advantage of the novelty deployed by Tim Cook’s firm. Widgets for Google Search will allow you to perform a quick search, activate Google Lens or perform a translation on the fly. As for Chrome, you can launch a voice search, open a tab in private mode or even play dinosaur – of course, when your internet connection is lacking. Google Drive also inherits a widget that lets you open a suggested document or view your folders with just a tap of your finger.

Google Maps offers a quick overview of your daily journeys by showing the estimated duration as well as real-time traffic conditions. The American giant indicates that it is enough to press on this widget when you are ready to leave to launch the navigation. It is also possible to display a thumbnail to find restaurants, shops or hotels close to your position. Gmail will display the number of unread emails or messages present in each category of mailboxes. Finally, Google News offers a widget that displays the latest headline and allows you to read it with a simple tap.

Google promises deployment “in the next weeks”, without giving further details. But knowing the Mountain View firm, the process should go fairly quickly.