Google has announced that it will provide access to a number of its popular apps from the iPhone’s Lock Screen, including Search, Maps, Gmail and more. An updated version of iOS 16, Apple’s mobile operating system, has recently been released. iPhone owners can now customize their devices by adding widgets to their Lock Screen instead of just their Home Screen as before, and Google will also benefit from this innovation.
These mini-widgets can be three-dimensional: circular and rectangular appearing below the Lock Screen clock, and inline messages appearing as a line of text and symbols above the clock. Google’s widgets will take advantage of all three formats. In a blog post, Google previewed iOS 16 widgets, which include a Search widget that lets you initiate a Google search from the Lock Screen, even using your voice or camera (Google Lens). This widget will also provide access to the Google Translate service.
Similarly, a new Chrome Lock Screen widget will allow users to initiate a search, including voice search, as well as offer a button to initiate a quick search in incognito mode. Meanwhile, the new Google Drive Lock Screen widget will let you open a suggested Drive file or Starred files and folders with a tap.
You will also be able to check your incoming mail with the Gmail widget. It will also show you how many messages you have not read. The Google maps widget will display information such as directions, real-time traffic information and estimated time of arrival.
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