What are widgets & how do they work?

Unlock the full potential of your Galaxy phone with a collection of powerful widgets designed to enhance your smartphone experience. Samsung widgets are designed to make interacting with your device quicker, easier and more intuitive. In this guide, we explain what a widget is, the best widgets for your Galaxy phone, and how you can customise the home screen to get the best experience.

What are widgets?

Unlike standard app icons, widgets provide real-time updates and interactive features that transform your Galaxy home screen. Widgets can be added to your Galaxy phone's home screen as a quick way to access information from apps without having to open the app itself. Samsung widgets are available for many of the most frequently accessed apps and can be personalised to your preferences.

There’s plenty of widget options on the latest Galaxy smartphones. For example, you can add a countdown calendar that reminds you when an important date is approaching, or a weather widget, which changes its colour and animation according to the current weather conditions of the selected location. Whether it’s displaying fitness data, news headlines, or giving you smart suggestions about what you need to do next, Samsung’s widgets offer at-a-glance information, helping to save you time and provide a more personalised smartphone experience.

What are the best Samsung widgets?

With the release of One UI 6 you can now enjoy enhanced Samsung widgets on the latest Galaxy smartphones including the epic Samsung Galaxy S24 series. Here’s what you can expect from the latest Samsung widgets:

1. Customisable camera widgets

Capturing that perfect moment with your camera is faster and more tailored than ever before. The new camera widget lets you set up shortcuts that launch the camera app with specific settings already enabled. Need to swiftly switch to Pro mode or activate Night mode? A single tap on your customised camera widget effortlessly gets you there. You can even set each widget to start in a specific shooting mode and save pictures in an album of your choice.

2. Weather Insights widget

From thunderstorms to rain, snow, and various other conditions, the upgraded Weather Insights widget ensures you are equipped with detailed and timely weather information that’s conveniently accessible at a glance.

3. Smart Suggestions widget

The Smart Suggestion widget knows what you need before you do. It suggests apps to use, people to call, calendar events to add, and more, based on your usage patterns. And now it recommends Spotify tracks and playlists based on your current activity. Get the perfect tunes for driving, exercising and more.

4. Clock widget

For many people the Clock widget is the first one they put on their home screen. Samsung Clock has four widgets: Alarm, Digital, Analog and Dual clock. The Dual clock widget shows day and night colours for your selected location, making the widget more intuitive and glanceable. And if you love the look of a more traditional watch face, the Analog clock is the one for you.

5. Music Widget

The Samsung Music widget lets you control your music from your home screen. You can play, pause, skip, and shuffle your songs, as well as view the album and song title. This widget is perfect if you’re a music lover who wants easy access to your favourite tunes.

6. Battery widget

The battery widget lets you check the battery level of your Galaxy device. From the Home screen, you can see how much battery is left on your phone, Galaxy Buds, Galaxy Watch and other supported devices.

7. Modes and Routines Widget

The Modes and Routines widget on your Galaxy phone helps you navigate through your day. For example, when you get to work in the morning, Bixby can mute notification sounds and turn on Wi-Fi. Or, when you’re going to sleep, Bixby can lower your screen’s brightness level to ensure a better night’s sleep.

8. Calendar widget

The Samsung Calendar widget lets you create events and tasks quickly and easily, to ensure that you remember them even when you’re super busy. You’ll find the likes of ‘Month and Today’ where you can view your monthly calendar alongside your planned events for the day. There’s also a Countdown widget which shows you the number of days left until a specific event you’ve been waiting for, such as a birthday, anniversary or wedding.

9. Note List widget

This useful widget displays the names of your most recent notes along with a thumbnail preview of them. You can also customise the widget size, background colour, and transparency so it has just the right look for you.

Like things neat and tidy? You can now combine several widgets of the same size into a single widget to make your Home screen look neat and organised. Just drag a widget onto another one to create a stack, then swipe left and right to switch between widgets. You can add more widget to your stack at any time with a simple drag and drop.

Can widgets show notifications?

Yes, Samsung widgets can show notifications for certain apps, such as Calendar, Messages, and Samsung notes. You can also download a Notification widget from the Google Play store which clearly displays notifications from the top bar in the widget with fast reply in conversations or media player controls.

How to add widgets & customise your lock screen & home screen

Widgets can be added to your phone’s home screen as a quick way to access certain information from apps without having to open the app itself. Your Galaxy phone has two screens; the home screen that appears by default when turned on, but also the App screen where you can see all the individual app icons. Widgets come in various sizes, are customisable, and can be placed on any available home screen panel for quick access.

To add a widget to your home screen, follow the steps below:

1. Tap and hold an empty spot on the home screen.
2. Tap Widgets on the bottom of the screen.
3. Select your desired widget, e.g. the Clock widget.
4. Select the type of the widgets and then tap Add.
5. You may need to choose additional settings for the widget.
6. The widget that you have selected is now displayed on the home screen.
7. To relocate the widget on the home screen, tap and hold the widget, move it to the desired location, and then release it to place it in that location.
8. To remove the widget on the home screen, tap and hold the widget, and then select Remove. Removing the widget does not delete the app settings.

With the latest One UI and Galaxy smartphones you can now set up different Lock screens with their own wallpaper and clock style for when you're driving, working, exercising and more. Try a dark wallpaper for Sleep mode or a calming wallpaper for Relax mode. When you edit the Lock screen for a mode, you’ll see that wallpaper whenever that mode is turned on.

Customising your lock screen is easy, simply following the steps below:

1. Open the Settings app on your hone and scroll down to the Lock screen section
2. Tap widgets to access the settings for widgets in the lock screen
3. Enable or disable the widgets you want to see on the lock screen by tapping the toggle next to each option.
4. To change the order of the widgets, tap the Reorder button in the top-right corner to drag the widgets to your preferred position.
5. To add third-party widgets to the Lock screen or the Always-On Display, you need to download the Good Lock app from the Galaxy Store and install the LockStar module, Then, you can select any widget from the picker and resize it on the lock screen.