Google Announces New iOS 16 Lock Screen Widgets

Google has announced that the company’s first lock screen widgets are available for iOS 16. From now on, you can display an overview of Maps, Mail, or other Google services on the iPhone.

This works very simply. With iOS 16, Apple has completely customized the lock screen. You can display as much or as little information as you think is necessary and use different lock screens depending on the situation.

Google’s iOS 16 lock screen widgets are now officially available. The start was announced in September. Google widgets provide at-a-glance information and shortcuts for some of the company’s top apps.

For example, Gmail can display the number of new messages, while Maps can either provide a link to favorite routes or frequently used routes (e.g. for the way home) or a search for destinations such as restaurants.

YouTube, Lens, Gmail

Widgets for Chrome and the Google app can help launch web searches faster, issue voice commands, or launch features like Lens Translation and Chrome’s Dino Game. Google is now pointing out all of this functionality in a blog post. YouTube and YouTube Music also have lock screen widgets. Use it to find YouTube video subscriptions or quickly search for a YouTube music track.

In some cases, they even offer an advantage over Android smartphones that only display a limited amount of information on the lockscreen. The iOS lock widgets can only be created for Google apps that are already installed on the iPhone. The company has already prepared instructions for this, how to set up the widgets.