- We can now report that lock screen widgets are coming back, but will only be available on tablets running Android 15.
- Earlier this year, we broke the news that Google is working on bringing back Android’s long-lost lock screen widget feature.
- At the time, it wasn’t clear if the feature was intended for all devices or only tablets.
One of the best ways you can customize your Android phone or tablet is by adding a widget to the home screen. Android widgets have been around for a very long time, but in most flavors of the OS, you’re only able to place them on your home screen. Android used to let you add widgets to the lock screen, but it’s been nearly a decade since the operating system let you do that. The upcoming Android 15 update, however, will let you add widgets to the lock screen, but there’s a significant catch.
Earlier this year, I revealed that Google is working on bringing back lock screen widget support in Android 15. I made this assertion based on the existence of a new “communal space” — an area that’s accessed by swiping inward from the right side of the lock screen. This communal space let me add widgets from select apps that still utilized an old API made for Android’s older lock screen widget feature. That, plus the fact that the communal space was accessible from the lock screen, led me to believe that this work was indeed related to a revived lock screen widget feature.