One of the main selling points of the Android platform is its ability to provide rich widgets from the home screen of the device. Here we will explore what they are, how to manage them, use them, and some other things to know about widgets. Widgets are another way which Android allows you to customize and bring your personality into your Android device.

What is a Widget?

A widget is part of an application, either built in or one you download from the Market that exposes its entire user interface on the home screen. The widget allows the user to view information and even click on buttons without ever leaving the home screen.

Every widget takes up a certain portion of the screen and most will not simply be sized as a 1x1.

For the sake of reference, the messaging application has the spacing of 1x1;

The clock widget below, for example, is a 2x2, that is it takes up 2 positions left to right and 2 positions top to bottom. This widget does not have any clickable features and is simply a clock.

The Music widget below takes up 1x4 positions. It has 3 clickable buttons, the play button will start music and transform into a pause for when you want to stop. You can press into the playlist space which will take you into the Android Music application, and you can also click on the next track button to forward through your playlist.

Adding a Widget

Widgets can be added to the home screen by either holding a click on the home screen until the context menu appears or by clicking on the Menu button on the home screen and clicking on the Add button.

Within the Choose Widget screen you will see all of the widgets which have been loaded into your Android device, some applications may expose multiple widgets and also display the size of the widget in the name of the widget.

Each widget works differently when you add them, some are simply added to the home screen and others open up a settings window to configure the widget itself. It really just depends which widget you are running.