Widget support

[Shinra04]

Allow widgets with minimalist icons on the top-right portion of screen.

[zbhoy]

I was thinking a page to the right with a list of active widgets would be cool.

[Shinra04]

Oh yes, but I was thinking how to keep it minimalistic.

[jakcharvat]

I wouldn't close this issue so we can keep track of the idea 😉

[Shinra04]

Eh, okay. But my #131 thread has a different suggestion for where the widgets should be. The suggestion I put here would make the launcher look a bit cluttered.

[oliver-cfc]

Just wanted to say that lack of widget support is the only thing stopping me from uninstalling SmartLauncher and moving to this full time. I really miss being able to replace the time/date on the main screen with a weather widget that tells me the temps for the next few hours etc. I think having the time there is redundant since it's also in the top bar anyway

[preetangad]

Really loving this launcher, first one I've made default ever. I just want to be able to use a couple of widgets, especially a calendar widget 2x4 and some shortcuts like Google maps and reminders (all 1x1).

[8bitPit]

@preetangad Shortcut support is an independent issue, they're easier to implement, see #62

[8bitPit]

but I know that other launchers display them in the widgets section

[vbujanca]

I'd like a dedicated widget page (or more) but also top favourites page

[hasarm]

Hide the Clock Option! Then You can Set a Widget With Full Width! Some People Really Don't need a clock bruh!

[prattsp]

It should allow to lock the screen, if possible just by touching the blank space on home screen.

Also more importantly it should allow us to add the emergency details to add on lock screen.

[8bitPit]

Praveen Chandran wrote in Telegram:

I have an idea for integrating widgets. The top portion that currently has the date and time will be a horizontally scrollable page like thing. So that we can add widget into each page. It's the top area so that it won't interfere with current the swipe gestures

[Shinra04]

@8bitPit

That's a good idea by OP. I was considering suggesting to use the top right portion of the screen as it's currently serving no purpose. But I wasn't sure if the screen would look crowded or not. Maybe if the icons were small enough it would look fine. Scrolling the time and date itself seems a tad bit more work to reach that spot, don't you think. Besides, it's as though the free space at the top right were meant solely for widgets.

EDIT: I realise OP probably meant to scroll the whole of the top section to reveal a new widget page. On this case, I still think having a couple widgets visible to the right of the time and date would be a good idea. It would make it more intuitive to swipe left to reveal more widgets too.

[preetangad]

I love the idea of being able to put one widget on the top right, especially if it's more than 1x1. I really wish I can see my calendar without clicking anything and I'm sure other people have their own things too.

[ShinobiWPS]

I was thinking a page to the right with a list of active widgets would be cool.

+1 To avoid the calendar widget it could be enough (waiting opinion from everybody) to have a persistent expanded Height-space if you make Favourite your calendar app.

using current behaviour, You see events notifications in the launcher from your calendar for the current day only BUT if you press on it, the list of events won't disappear from the launcher Icon.

possible drawback if you have plenty of events for the current day only the list will move favourite apps below it even more.

possible solution: limit the list to 3 rows height and make it scrollable(or not)

[ShinobiWPS]

ANOTHER suggestion would be to show ONLY reminders of your calendar persistently for the current day only with the above technique. They can be visually replaced if you have new notification /events in your calendar and once dismissed you will see your list of reminders for the current day only.

[ShinobiWPS]

We are trying to emulate Google Usability Engineers.

[ciriousjoker]

I'd suggest putting the Widgets in the usual page based system when the user swipes from left to right.

[Guyzers]

Why not just put a Widget Icon in the up/down scroll area? That way, Widgets don't have to interfere with the apps and the screen still would be less clustered

[Shinra04]

Having the widgets in the upper section of the screen makes it a one-tap access to a couple, and one gesture away from the rest. I doubt people will have more than about 7 widgets they'd really need. It does look cluttered either as it neatly takes up a bit of space.

That's why it's a better option than having it in the apps scroll.

[Dave-Atlas]

Hi developers, I wanted to share an idea about the launcher's home with you. You could add a function that allows you to choose the preferred side for the alphabet bar, thus giving the possibility of a directional swipe, which allows access to a free area where you can insert widgets to scroll vertically. However, excellent work for everything done so far. Thanks for your attention and good work. #117

[alexandergreuter]

So i've just downloaded that launcher, its a great one by the way, but theres so much more potential to it. I just wanted to share my ideas here: Have you thought about making something like onplus dash? Swipe frome left to another screen where you can place and scroll through your widgets. And something like on emui stock launcher where you swipe down and get get a new screen with qr code scanner recent apps contacts serches and a bar where you can search for apps contacts and files if it dosent find anything it redirects to google. And if you swipe from right to left you can see your messages and some customizable quick settings you can expand. And if you swipe up the app drawer but mabye a more compact one?

[tjsuominen]

Let Niagara be unique (in a good way) and not too "copy-cat" (just saying, nothin' more). Yet repeating myself, missing widgets support from home-screen is the single biggest thing for me preventing Niagara to become my daily driver (and "At a Glance" like calendar feature).

[provalinf]

Hi, guys, I just discovered this launcher, it's really great. But like many, it is missing the possibility to add a page to put widgets only, for me the most important thing are the widgets for the agendas, rss feeds and galleries.

Thanks to the dev

[Dran01]

Is there any way to get an additional home page dedicated for widgets using swipe gestures??

I really loved your launcher and please don't stop developing itt!!!!

[techhahn]

How about making default page scrollable. On scrolling down(swipe down on home screen), widgets will be shown. Widgets will be listed under the fold. Rest of the functionality will work as it is now.

[chriscam85]

Guys, just add another launcher app to your favorites. I use Evie, and put all my widgets there. Then home button is back to Niagara. Perfect. No need for extra development.

[Guyzers]

The best way (in my perspective) is to use the iOS like way to get to the widgets using the left side of the screen. Since some of us are lefties, maybe have a toggle which switches the gestures.

[tjsuominen]

Absodefinitely NOT to have widgets only on a separate screen, but on the default (home) screen. If one thing I think Niagara should awp ("adopt with pride") from Nova Launcher, is the way it handles widgets - place freely on the (home) screen. Yet, understanding how Niagara works, widget(s) might need to have a dedicated (fixed?) position on the screen - or perhaps not. It all depends HOW Niagara bahavior is developed. For me, it's truly a showstopper NOT having "at glance" like info (calendar / next meeting) in sight all the time.

[oliver-cfc]

Absodefinitely NOT to have widgets only on a separate screen, but on the default (home) screen. If one thing I think Niagara should awp ("adopt with pride") from Nova Launcher, is the way it handles widgets - place freely on the (home) screen. Yet, understanding how Niagara works, widget(s) might need to have a dedicated (fixed?) position on the screen - or perhaps not. It all depends HOW Niagara bahavior is developed. For me, it's truly a showstopper NOT having "at glance" like info (calendar / next meeting) in sight all the time.

I felt the same way but there are apps in the playstore that will overlay the widget(s) of your choice but only while specific apps are running in the foreground. This is how I'm placing a weather widget just under the notification bar and only when I'm on the homescreen. If I start any other app then the widget disappears. I'd rather have native support from Niagara but it's working in the meantime.

The one I'm using is called overlays. I'm not affiliated in any way with it and there have been a couple of bugs/annoyances but it's good enough for me.

[chareos]

What about offer (long tap) to replace an app entry with it's 4x1 / 4x2 widget, if available ? It would stay consistent with the music widget appearance and usage model, no need for a separate home page or different scrolling logic to get to a separate widget space.

[verboze]

Similar to oliver-cfc, I use this launcher in conjunction with Popup Widget, Tasker, and Gesture Navigations; I have mapped a gesture to launch that Popup Widget. Prob solved for me.

[chriscam85]

I have a really nice combination Niagara and Kustom Live wallpaper KLWP going. You can basically create your own/download widgets in KLWP. The only issue I'm having is I can't use the Touch Widget capabilities because perhaps Niagara doesn't have "Tap to Wallpaper must be supported by the Launcher"??? Any way to check this?

[preetangad]

@chriscam85 Hadn't heard of KLWP, this is exactly what I needed. It was not straightforward how to set it up, but I have successfully set it up such that I can see my next 3 calendar events (plus their start time along with the location of the first one) on my home screen, above the time. Thank you!

Touch actions support would be great but in this case I don't need it since clicking on the date below the time also takes me to the calendar.

[johnhayesio]

Similar to oliver-cfc, I use this launcher in conjunction with Popup Widget, Tasker, and Gesture Navigations; I have mapped a gesture to launch that Popup Widget. Prob solved for me.

This worked perfectly for the time being until native support is added for widgets. Thanks for the Popup Widget suggestion.

[Kelvino9]

Use a two finger swipe anywhere on the home screen to switch the screen to the left or right which could have widgets on it.

Or swipe left/right over the Niagara time/date area to switch through home screens

I usually have on my left home screen my calendar agenda and on the right home screen my Twitter time line.

[JuicyBazz]

I like the ideas I'm seeing. Widget Drawer from the Play Store works great. It's $1, but well worth it to support ongoing development from an active Dev.

Edit - Meant to add that it uses an edge swipe hotspot.

[tjsuominen]

Still trying to convince ;) for the importance of the "Next agenda item" and the ability to have one placed for the Niagara main home screen with a "At glance" like functionality. Would satisfy many, many users. And I think I could fit just nicely from designwise as well... :)

[cauerego]

i used niagara for a while and fell in love like everyone else here...

a big reason is i couldn't care less about widgets.

but once pie hit my nokia 6.1 i had to go back to the default pixel launcher.

as many mentioned, i was of course always missing the calendar smart alerts and smart app suggestions... but also app shortcuts, such as chrome web apps and maps friends locations. mainly, though, i couldn't stand the lack of integration from the new task switcher, by swiping up from the bottom. i think it's broken in any other launcher. probably android's fault.

and i love the new assistance button that goes in place of the app switcher, to get soft lock native among other nice utilities there, so i'm not going back despite of being a bit clumsy to swap on previous app.

in any case, to me this was the solution:

i now keep niagara as an app on the home screen.

just to go through apps when needed, instead of using the freaking useless default app list.

this way we get the best of both worlds, without needing to install any extra clumsy memory consumption apps (only thing is a bit less of convenience there). memory is essential if you're in a cheap device. and it works! :)

[ghost]

Another way to handle this would be to swipe from Widget to Widget (left/right swipe)

[bala7s]

741: Please add widget support, but with a complete separate screen that only usable for widgets.

This should be on the top of home screen, so there would be 3 screens from top to bottom as widget screen would be on the top, home screen with favorite apps in the middle, and the all apps on the bottom. And a single vertical swipe would allow the user to switch between them. I think this would make a much cleaner interface than putting everything into one singe screen.

[8bitPit]

I am not really a fan of widget pages. The only thing widgets have in common there is, well, they’re all widgets. So why should they be grouped together? Showing a weather widget below the clock and accessing your calendar agenda via a swipe / by tapping on a button makes more sense to me. Also, widgets often tend to use much ram. The concept of a widget list would kind of endorse user to cluster the page full of widgets. A swipe menu shows only a single widget at once, so not every widget has to be loaded into ram when you want to access one. That’s why I’m planning to add the following integration: You can place a single widget below the clock or replace it for showing weather and / or time, or an at a glance widget. More widgets can be accessed by swiping right on an app. Another idea would be that you can customize the google search button at the bottom right, so it can also launch a widget, e.g. your calendar.

[Shinra04]

I've been using the app Overlays to meet my widget needs, but it's just a temporary replacement. The placement of the widgets(top-right and bottom) is perfectly accessible and doesn't intrude with other elements. Perhaps this gives a good idea on where to place them.

[tjsuominen]

@8bitPit ;

Huge thumbs up for this:

You can place a single widget below the clock or replace it for showing weather and / or time, or an at a glance widget.

With big support to At a Glance widget (which I understood you'll make a "Niagara one?).

[Dedisurya]

I need only one home screen widget. Only one home screen widget is enough for me. And i dont need have a download widget, which is show what we download, i dont need that. Just home screen and menu. The concept which Niagara Launcher do now is perfect for me. Simple, ideal, useful, efective, and efficient.

[Dedisurya]

In appearance, I think this is enough. but there are still some problems in the Niagara launcher performance. I open the music application, it usually happens to pop up the music control menu automatically to the home screen. but when I used Niagara launcher, the pop up menu didn't appear. it would be better if it was corrected. Thank you

[Dedisurya]

What for the widget is ?. Home screen and menu was enough

[paijojo]

only need the home screen and menu. there is no need to have many screens for favorites or screens for newly downloaded applications or whatever. only need the home screen and menu. there is no need for a search page, the home button or google application is enough to do a search. do not make many rights stacked only for the same function. simplicity is everything.

[paijojo]

what the Niagara launcher has done so far is for the home screen display and the menu is correct.

[aatifsyed]

Swiping L→R opens notifications Pressing and holding opens options Why not have swiping L←R open a widget? You could take cues from action launcher in terms of selecting a widget for an app