The very best Android widgets for busy professionals
When wondering regarding widgets, you might be smart to weigh which widget is really a widget worth welcoming.
Apologies for my atrociously frustrating alliteration. (Ah, blast. There I again go. ) The plain thing in regards to a widget, though, is — properly, it noises silly. And it’s an easy task to write off to be irrelevant to your daily life being an Extremely Serious Smartphone Consumer.
But playful because they might seem — and frivolous because they appear &mdash often; Android widgets could be a real asset with regards to mobile productivity actually. In fact, as soon as you wade through the Enjoy Store’s endless-seeming selection of weather conditions widgets, clock widgets, and, uh, more climate widgets, a ocean of genuinely useful choices awaits.
These standout Android widgets add worth to your smartphone set up by putting timely information and complicated functions right on your house display, where they’re always around the corner and an easy task to reach. In doing this, you’re saved by them precious actions and help you to get more accomplished in less period.
So without the further ado, here they’re: the Google android widgets you want.
(Note that I’m excluding any email or messaging apps in this checklist, because so many of the respectable customers in those classes have great widgets &mdash similarly; and there’s really very little to tell apart one from another. Furthermore, all apps listed here are free unless noted or else. Capisce?)
Google android widgets for note-using
Google Keep
Google Keep may be the best Android note-taking app for some people, and its own widget doesn’t disappoint. Keep’s main widget offers you a good way to scroll during your information — with the choice to see all notes, just those that are usually pinned, or only the ones that are of a specific label. You can view the initial several lines of every note correct on your house screen, also it takes a individual tap to open almost everything in full just.
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Google Keep’s Google android widget puts your individual notepad on your own phone’s home screen.
Equally advantageous may be the atop the Maintain widget toolbar, gives you one-tap commands for starting a fresh note, starting a fresh checklist, going for a note simply by voice, jotting lower something in handwriting, and capturing an image into your information directly. And if all you have to are those commands, it is possible to choose to use Keep’s smaller sized toolbar widget — gives you the fast-accessibility shortcuts without the notes attached.
Evernote
If you require a far more fully-featured note-taking set up and do not mind paying the purchase price — $8 monthly for a restriction-free premium subscription — Evernote provides a wholesome pinch of efficiency to your Google android phone’s home screen.
The app’s widget enables you to view a scrollable set of notes with numerous options — which kind of information are included, from what notebook created information are saved, and whether you need to see pictures, tags, and textual content in the widget or just note titles.
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Evernote’s widget is filled with helpful info and choices.
Evernote offers you a convenient toolbar near the top of its widget, &mdash too; and you could even customize what instructions are integrated and in what purchase they appear. Automagically, the widget includes instructions for taking a fresh basic note, capturing a graphic to be stored in your notes, going for a note by tone of voice, and jotting down something in handwriting. It is possible to swap some of those products out for shortcuts that’ll established a reminder, have a more technical note (with a complete group of editing tools), lookup your notes, or attach the downloaded file right into a note recently.
You can also select from a typical Evernote-green theme or perhaps a more subdued black-and-gray alternative.
ColorNote Notepad Notes
Whether you make use of a thorough note-taking app or not really, sometimes you encounter the nugget of details you should remember and want placarded prominently, right before your face. ColorNote can be an app really worth maintaining around for that circumstance — due to the widget mostly.
You can think about ColorNote as a virtual Post-It notepad for the phone: When something noteworthy enters your noggin, all you need to do is put in a new ColorNote widget to your house screen, type in anything you want to remember, and that is it: The info will show up on your own home screen as though you’d stuck a little sticky note directly on top of one’s phone.
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Press a variety of Post-It information to your display screen with ColorNote’s Google android widget.
The app has its system for burning to the cloud, in order to keep your notes synced across several devices. You can even change anybody note’s color by starting it within the primary app. But it is the simpleness of being in a position to put digital Post-Its on your own home screen which makes ColorNote a widget really worth having.
Ruff Writing App
If you prefer the thought of an individual scratchpad of some individual Post-Its instead, Ruff may be the device for you. The canine-themed app is made to bring an individual amusingly, delightfully basic scrolling sheet of textual content to your phone. Whatever you kind into that sheet will be automatically preserved locally on your own device and can quickly end up being archived for afterwards reference or sent somewhere else for posting or external storing.
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Ruff’s widget puts an individual scratchpad on your own home screen.
What’s especially noteworthy about Ruff’s widget is usually its capability to scroll — thus permitting you to look through an extended note without needing to leave your house screen ever. That is clearly a relatively rare perform for an email widget to provide and one that may be valuable in a lot of situations.
Ruff is absolve to make use of, though certain functions — like the scrolling widget capacity — need a one-period $4 in-app buy to access.
Google android widgets for job and agenda administration
Any.do
With regards to managing to-do lists, Any.perform is a cut above the relax — and its own collection of Android widgets is not any less impressive. The primary Any.do widget displays a scrollable set of all your duties; it is possible to tap any item immediately to check it faraway from the listing or put in a new item utilizing the built-in commands for textual content or voice input.
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Any.do’s main Google android widget has an easy-to-make use of and interactive look at of one’s pending tasks.
A variety is roofed by the app of other widget options, including a far more compact task checklist, a super-minimalist widget for adding new tasks just, and an expanded widget that presents a calendar alongside your tasks. And you will select from white and transparent designs for just about any of those configurations.
Any.do is free of charge having an optional $36-a-year subscription (in the event that you update through the app) for advanced functions such as for example location-based reminders and limitless attachments.
Month: Calendar Widget
Like having a month-long overview available for on-the-spot preparation? The plainly named 30 days: Calendar Widget offers you a clear and easy solution to go through the current 30 days on your own home screen — and obtain additional info from your own agenda as you will need it then.
Unlike the often-difficult-to-decipher and cluttered Google Calendar month-view widget, Month: Calendar Widget offers a clear view of the existing month (or any month, past or present). After that it runs on the operational system of little dots to indicate the current presence of activities on different days, on any time to draw up a pop-up windows with its agenda and you may tap.
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Month: Calendar Widget combines a stylish month view having an on-demand daily agenda pop-up.
Month: Calendar Widget includes nine different designs, with a number of tasteful styles — and when you need more even, it is possible to pay $3.50 to unlock some additional options. Even though you don’t opt to do this, you will want to spring for the $1 in-app upgrade to be able to switch off some rather prominent ads scattered through the entire application.
Event Flow Calendar Widget or Home Agenda Calendar Widget
In case a more event-driven view is what you’re after, give yourself an upgrade from the limiting Google Calendar agenda widget and obtain either Event Flow Calendar Widget (free having an optional $1 upgrade for advanced options) or Home Agenda Calendar Widget ($2).
Both are commendable and customizable because of their designs. Really the only question is which style you like: Event Flow offers you a boxier vibe, every day existing as a card with, while Home Agenda Calendar Widget offers up an easier format where every individual event can appear as its distinctive section.
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Event Flow, left, and Home Agenda, right, have different designs but similar functions.
Both apps provide a lot of tools for placing your agenda on your home screen in an obvious, easy-to-read way that emphasizes the knowledge most significant to your purposes. Either widget could be had by you show as much events as you need, months in to the future, with a format that’s as compact or disseminate as you like. And you may choose from a number of color themes and display settings to help make the info as easy on your own eyes as possible.
Either widget gives your home screen an extra touch of utility and elegance — and represent a substantial step from what came loaded on your own phone automagically up.
Sectograph Planner & Time Manager
For a original and effective single-day overview widget truly, have a look at Sectograph — day in an inspired pie chart format an app that presents another 12 hours of one’s. It’s almost like having a smartwatch on your own home screen, together with your schedule mapped out by the entire hour.
And the widget is interactive, too: In the event that you tap on any event within it, the complete circle fills up with detailed information on that appointment and just how long you have gone until it begins.
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Day up into slices and provides you an excellent visual summary of your plans sectograph divides your.
Sectograph has choices for customizing every part of its appearance &mdash almost; and when you pay $4 to upgrade to the app’s Pro version, it is possible to change its color scheme as well as boost to a 24-hour clock and also create separate, individual widgets for different calendars on your own device.
Hurry Countdown
Got a significant deadline coming — or the next company trip maybe? The delightfully simple Hurry Countdown app does a very important factor and does it well: It enables you to create eye-catching countdown widgets for specific events and monitor just how long is left prior to the moment arrives.
Whatever you do is input your event’s title, date, and time in to the app, select a graphic for the backdrop then, if you are so inspired — so when you head to add the app’s widget on your home screen, your info will undoubtedly be and waiting to be selected there.
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Count down the proper time and energy to important events with the Hurry Countdown widget.
Hurry Countdown is free because of its basic functions. It is possible to unlock advanced functions, like the capability to back up and sync your events together with your Google account, with a one-time $1.50 in-app purchase.
TripIt
TripIt may be the Swiss Army Knife of Android travel apps, and its own widget will probably be worth every inch of space on your own phone’s home screen once you have a trip coming.
TripIt serves as a central organizer for several of one’s travel-related plans (once you either forward your itineraries to a particular email or authorize the app to gain access to your email right to find such messages). Its $49-a-year TripIt Pro service then offers you real-time flight updates all during your trip — often even beating notifications by airlines’ own apps.
The widget puts most of TripIt’s knowledge into an easily glanceable space on your own home screen, letting you see and scroll during your plans and never have to dig around anytime. And, of course, it is possible to always tap on any element inside your plans to jump immediately to a far more detailed view.
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TripIt’s interactive itinerary widget is invaluable anytime you’re traveling.
Android widgets for news and information
Google News
Keep carefully the latest headlines close at hand with Google’s smartly designed News app and its own simple but effective widget. The widget shows your personalized briefing, with five current stories highly relevant to your interests and/or location and an instant overview of the elements wherever you are.
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The Google News widget puts a variety of current items and events of interest on your own home screen.
It is possible to tap on any news item to see it completely or tap the “Full dental coverage plans” button to see related stories from other sources. It’s a good way in which to stay the loop on probably the most pressing headlines each day.
Inoreader
If you have a particular set of sources you will need to keep tabs on for the job — company blogs, industry news sites, or other publications highly relevant to your interests — Inoreader is an excellent way to make certain nothing slips past your attention.
Whatever you do is add whatever sources you need into the app and place the widget on your own home screen, and all of the latest articles from those outlets will be there and looking forward to you in a regularly refreshed, scrollable box.
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Track your personal custom group of sources with reduced effort with Inoreader on your own home screen.
It is possible to access your list from the computer even, utilizing the Inoreader web app, and the service could keep an eye on which articles you’ve read in either place so you’ll always know where you left off. Inoreader is absolve to use having an optional $50-a-year professional plan that lifts a 150-source limit on your own subscriptions and adds advanced functions such as for example offline reading and an in-app translation option.
Google Maps (Traffic)
Among the simplest but most effective widgets out there can be an unassuming option buried within Google Maps: the Maps Traffic widget. Toss it on your home screen, and it will look like a normal shortcut-style icon — because, well, it basically is a shortcut.
But what it can is take you straight into Maps’ nearby traffic feature, in order to see just what the traffic is similar to in your present area at any given moment. It is a helpful way to sign in on road conditions and see whether it’s a great time to head out the entranceway for the evening commute — or if it’d be worth waiting some time or finding another route.
The Maps Traffic widget is bundled and free in to the main Google Maps app.
MSN Money or Investing.com
Investors, take notice: Two worthwhile widgets might help you keep track of stocks of interest from your phone’s home screen.
The initial, MSN Money, offers you super-simple small square widgets with up-to-date information on an individual stock in each. When you have just a few stocks you will need to monitor, it is a smart way to track them without the fuss or wasted space. And when you want extra information on the stocks, it is possible to simply tap the associated widget to pull up a variety of data within the entire app.
The next, Investing.com, offers a more standard scrolling-box view where you can see current information on as much stocks as you would like. And as with MSN Money just, it is possible to tap on any relative line to pull up more descriptive info.
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MSN Money, left, and Investing.com, right, offer different answers to the same problem.
The main difference may be the simple single box vs just. the scrolling list configuration — and the truth that the entire Investing also.com app (though not the widget) includes ads, per year for an ad-free experience if you don’t desire to pony up 64 bucks.
Android widgets for advanced functions
Authy
Keep your two-factor authentication codes handy with Authy’s immensely practical widget, which puts a scrollable set of your 2FA-enabled accounts on your own home screen and enables you to pull up and copy codes for just about any account with an instant tap. (If you keep your 2FA data password- or fingerprint-protected — that you most should &mdash certainly; you need to provide authentication before any codes are accessible.)
Authy, in the event that you aren’t familiar, is actually a better version of Google’s own Authenticator app. And two-factor authentication is something you should absolutely be using whenever we can.
Google Drive (Scan)
The next time you’re holding a bit of physical paper you will need to save lots of — be it a receipt, a continuing business card, or perhaps a bar napkin which someone’s written incredibly important info (as you does) — the Google Drive Scan widget will be your new companion.
The widget, area of the main Drive app, doesn’t appear to be much on your own home screen. But tap it, and a camera viewfinder can look. Hold your phone over your paper, hit the shutter icon on your own screen, and that’s virtually it: Tap once again to confirm, and the image will be saved as a PDF to your Drive storage — in whatever folder you specified once you set the widget up first.
(You can also choose to crop the image, if needed, or “scan” additional images to be attached as extra pages in the PDF.)
The best part? Because of Google’s character recognition system, after that you can search Drive for just about any word shown on the paper to quickly discover the PDF in the foreseeable future. And when you ever desire to convert every one of the image’s text into plain, editable text inside a document, you can do that, too.
You can find other apps offering a more feature-rich Android scanning experience, however when it involves quick capturing with one-tap access, Google Drive’s widget may be the way to go.
IFTTT
IFTTT is short for “If This, Then That” — and its own Android widget is filled with productivity-oriented possibilities.
The IFTTT widget could be configured to perform a large number of different time-saving tasks. An IFTTT could possibly be developed by you widget that serves as a quick-add function for Google Calendar events, for instance, and something that provides you a one-tap command for posting messages to a particular Slack channel quickly.
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IFTTT’s widget can automate and simplify a variety of time-consuming tasks.
There is a widget for tracking your projects hours in Google Sheets and another for emailing an easy note to yourself. There’s even an IFTTT widget to make your phone ring in the event you ever need a justification to shuffle out of an endless meeting. (Don’t worry — I will not tell.)
Install the app, put in a widget, and begin exploring. Your options are endless practically.
Sesame Universal Search and Shortcuts
Lastly is perhaps probably the most versatile and powerful Android widget of ’em all — a search bar called Sesame. It is possible to think about it as a pumped-up version of the standard Google search bar that’s present on many Android home screens, with plenty of added oomph: Along with searching the web, because the Google widget does, Sesame’s widget enables you to search your apps, your contacts, as well as your calendar events even. It indexes specific areas within apps, too, so you might start typing the initial couple letters of a Slack team, for example, and it’d pop-up a direct connect to take you to that section of Slack.
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Tap the Sesame bar (seen near the top of the left image) and enter a couple of letters, and you will be able to reach almost any section of your phone super fast (as illustrated in the image at right).
The widget itself appears like a search bar just, and you may customize its appearance you prefer however. It can have even an icon on its edge to pull up Google Assistant, just like the regular Google search bar does just.
Sesame includes a free two-week trial. From then on, it costs $3.50 to keep using — money that’s arguably well spent for all your seconds you’ll save.
in August 2018 and updated in July 2020 This article was originally published.