Summary
- Google is updating the Play Store to improve widget discovery.
- New features include a dedicated widget search filter and a widget badge.
- A curated widgets page will promote apps with widgets.
Google has been actively adding a flurry of new features to the Play Store over the last year in an effort to improve the experience, though not every addition is as welcome as the last. Still, it’s frightfully apparent the Play Store is awful for discovery, and that includes the discovery of widgets, something Google is currently looking to change. In a recent post on the Android Developers Blog, several new Play Store features have been revealed that should help users find and utilize widgets, which should be good for both developers and users alike.
Google has filled Android with ‘recommendations’ to the point they are now unbearable
I’m already looking for alternatives
Soon we’ll be able to find app widgets with ease
Though no specific date has been provided
Thanks to Google’s recent blog post (via The Verge), we now know a handful of features are coming to the Play Store to aid widget discovery. The big one is the addition of a dedicated widget search filter, as in you can toggle widgets as a filter and only search apps that offer them, which is a very welcome change that should ideally promote better discovery (now if only Google would stop serving ads as the first search result on the Play Store).
Google is also adding a widget badge to the Play Store so users can easily see which apps offer widgets, something Google should lean harder into for all sorts of things, like controller support. Still, having a visual indicator of which apps offer widgets is more than welcome; another great addition that is coming sometime soon.
Lastly, Google is going to offer a curated widgets page, which sounds like a hub to find the most popular apps that offer widgets, especially when this space is expected to be curated, and will also serve as an avenue to promote apps with widgets, providing devs a space where their widget apps can shine.
Google is of the opinion that these changes should promote user engagement, provide fresh opportunities for user interaction, and ultimately help promote widget creation for the Android platform. Only time will tell if these plans will yield results, but at the very least these all sound like good moves for consumers and developers. While we don’t know when Google plans to release these widget discovery features, the words “coming soon” have been used to describe their expected arrival.
