Google, the biggest supporter of iOS 16. Announces new widgets for iPhone lock screen

Even though Google owns the Android mobile platform, the main competitor to iOS, the company is also one of the biggest supporters of Apple’s platform. Not only does Google pay billions of dollars annually to keep its default search engine on Apple devices, but it’s also one of the fastest adopters of Apple’s new technologies and software initiatives. On the eve of the iOS 16 release, Google announced that it will offer new widgets on the iPhone that are compatible with the new lock screen.

Google apps will offer shortcuts to many quick features on the lock screen in iOS 16

iPhone users can now on iOS 16 add small widgets to the lock screen, which are even visible on the always-on display on the new iPhone 14 Pro models. These provide quick information about the contents of certain apps, and Apple ships the OS with a few simple widgets. We’ve got one for weather, one for calendar, one for accessory battery management, and a few other features. However, so far, no company has clearly announced what it plans to offer in this area of the iPhone screen.

Google, however, is the first company outside of Apple to want to offer support for them, as it did two years ago with Home Screen widgets. Google plans to add shortcuts to its apps, such as Google Search, Google Translate, Google Lens, Google Drive, Gmail, and even things inside apps, like a favorite folder on Drive or the dinosaur game within Google Chrome, to the iPhone’s lock screen. There’s also the ability to add shortcuts to Maps to quickly find a restaurant, hotel or coffee shop in the area, as well as shortcuts to Google News. Google seems to have put quite a bit of effort into offering many options to iPhone users, presumably in an attempt to dominate users’ lock screen with its services.

Google uses all three size formats allowed by Apple: circle, square, and text format, above the hour. Unfortunately, these widgets won’t be available now, or in the very near future. Google has said it will release the new widgets in “the coming weeks”.