Meta’s Messenger app is the first third-party widget to be available in the Windows 11 Widgets Table. But beware, third-party widget support is only for users of the latest preview version of Windows 11.
Widget system was touted as one of the flagship features of Windows 11. However, so far only Microsoft apps and content have been featured in the panel, including Bing content, Windows tips and promotions. Gamepass. Microsoft enabled widgets for third-party developers through the WinAppSDK 1.2 released in November.
The Messenger widget is in preview – it’s not fully stable yet. But its arrival should be welcomed by Windows 11 users as a first glimpse of what developers might be up to in the future.
A still unstable system
Users need to install the latest version of Messenger from the Microsoft Store and then open the widget table. There is a + at the top of the board, which displays a widget picker from which users can select Messenger to pin to the board.
According to Microsoft, users should expect more widgets in the future. However, the company warns that the current implementation can be a bit wonky. The version that supports third-party widgets is Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25284. “You should expect to see additional new widgets as developers build and release widgets for their apps,” Microsoft adds.
Currently, third-party widgets may occasionally disappear from the widget table, but they can be reinserted by re-pinning them from the widget picker. Widgets can also be unpinned when a user signs in to multiple Windows devices. Also, the pinned widget notification undo button doesn’t always work.
Towards support for third-party PWA widgets in Edge
Microsoft is also working on supporting third-party Progressive Web Apps (PWA) widgets for its Edge browser. This support is planned for a future release of Edge and is currently classified as an experimental feature.
Microsoft is currently testing another handy feature in Edge, which allows users to split a tab into two screens, so they can compare the content of two open web pages.
Picture: Microsoft.
Source: ZDNet.com