Android may have been the king of widgets for a very long time, Apple beat them to the punch a few years ago, but the same cannot be said about offering them on the lock screen. Lock screen widgets were available until Android 5, at which point they were unceremoniously removed with no word on when they would return.
iOS, meanwhile, added the feature back in 2022 with iOS 16, prompting many an Android user to wonder when the feature would make a comeback on Google-powered phones — myself included. Google finally restored lock screen widgets to Android 16 last year, a move I had completely forgotten about when it reached my Pixel 10 Pro.
I’ve since fixed the shiny watch and gotten to grips with lock screen widgets on Android, and my mind naturally began to draw comparisons to iOS.
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While similar, both platforms handle lock screen widgets very differently. So which of them really does a better job?
On Android, the easiest way to set up lock screen widgets is to lock your phone swipe from the right side of the screen. You will see a large box informing you that lock screen widgets are available, and you need to tap Add widgets button to continue.
From there, the setup is almost identical to that of adding home screen widgets. Select the app of your choice and select one of the widget designs offered.
On iOS, you need to press and hold on your lock screen, then tap Personalize option when showing the lock screen editor.
When done press Add widgets in the bar at the bottom of your screen, and select the app and widget style you want to add to your widget bar.
Apple’s lock screen widgets are right in your face, sitting on your lock screen where you can see them. However, they are quite limited, in that Apple only gives you a single line of the screen to work with. This means you can’t just overload your lock screen with whatever widgets you want, forcing you to be more selective about what you use.
Apple lets you make full use of this line, with equivalent space for four different tiles – or less if you choose the larger widgets, which take up the equivalent of two tiles. But if that line is full, you won’t get any extra space to work with.
Most of the widgets seem to display information at a glance, whether it’s time, calendar events, health metrics and other such features. There are a few other options that act as shortcuts to certain app features, including Chrome’s dinosaur minigame for some reason, but I couldn’t find anything that would allow me to perform actions on my home screen.
It’s unclear if it depends on the apps you have installed, so maybe I missed something. What I do know is that all I have was limited to visible information or the above shortcuts. Apple also seems to be limiting which third-party apps are allowed to provide lock screen widgets, and it seems like my smart home apps didn’t make the cut.
That means I can’t turn on my water heater without unlocking my phone first.
One more thing to note is that iOS allows you to choose whether to place the widget bar of your lock screen at the top of the screen (below the clock) or at the bottom. There is no in-between option, so be sure to choose the one that works best for you.
The funny thing about Android lock screen widgets is that it’s reminiscent of how Apple did widgets before iOS 14. If you think back to those days, you’ll remember that iPhones had a separate page that stored all your widgets, accessible by swiping from the left side of the home screen.
That’s essentially how the Android lock screen widgets work. You swipe from the right side of your lock screen, and all your widgets are accessible without unlocking your phone. But instead of being a continuously scrolling feed of widgets, Android limits you to three lock screen widgets per page.
You can of course have multiple pages, and if there is a limit, I haven’t found it yet. So far I’ve added five pages worth of lock screen widgets, which is already more than I know what to do with.
You’re limited to three widgets per page, though, and it doesn’t matter how big the widgets actually are. The smallest widget takes up exactly the same amount of space as the largest, and you must use all of the space before moving on.
Much like Android home screen widgets, there is a surprising amount of variety when it comes to widget design. You get different choices for each widget, and the designs are similar to what you’d expect on your phone itself. To the point where it feels a lot like the usual Android widget experience, but accessible when your phone is still locked.
But you can only see things at a glance. Some widgets allow you to check and control access to certain phone features, including smart home devices, access to more sensitive requests to lock the phone. If I want to access my calendar, emails, or even something as simple as Shazam, I have to unlock my phone first. Although this limits the usefulness of some widgets, I can understand why this is the case for many things.
Other than Shazam, not sure what that’s about – maybe it’s something to do with microphone access?
Who does it best?
Both Android and iOS make lock screen widgets rather different. Android gives you the ability to have as many widgets as you want, with the added ability to perform various actions without locking your phone.
Meanwhile, iOS is much more limited, but seems focused on providing shortcuts to key apps, or providing important information in a way that doesn’t require you to open your phone to see it – potentially saving you time and battery life in the process.
With that in mind, it seems that Android definitely offers more freedom and productive use of its lock screen widgets. Unfortunately, it is disappointed by the fact that it is so easy to forget about the widgets, and end up unlocking your phone. While limited in scale, iOS lock screen widgets are positioned front and center – making them very hard to miss.
As feature-rich as Android lock screen widgets are, they’re a bit pointless if you keep forgetting they’re there — and so far, they haven’t been around long enough to properly integrate into my everyday phone use. Then again, it’s not worth having in-your-face widgets if you can’t do much with them.
Frankly, it would be much better if both platforms offered a hybrid approach. More feature-rich widgets on and around the lock screen, and displayed in a way that you can’t really miss them. Also keep Android’s extra pages around so you have plenty of room to access the widgets you need when you need them.
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