Google has by no means been notably fast on the draw in terms of embracing new iOS options, however not less than followers of Google Calendar will now not need to resort to cumbersome workarounds to see their upcoming appointments on their iPhone lock screens.
Google is rolling out an replace to Google Calendar that provides help for 3 new Lock Display widgets. These work roughly such as you’d count on; there’s a full-sized widget that reveals the main points of your subsequent calendar merchandise and a smaller model that reveals the time. There’s additionally a separate widget that allows you to change the usual date block with one that features the subsequent upcoming occasion (or “No Occasions” if there’s nothing else scheduled right this moment).
There’s additionally a brand new “What’s subsequent with month view” House Display widget that, because the identify implies, reveals a small calendar view alongside your subsequent two upcoming occasions. That’s just like what Apple’s Calendar app has offered since House Display widgets debuted in iOS 14, but it surely’s been conspicuously lacking within the Google Calendar widgets, which beforehand solely supplied a fundamental view of the present date and upcoming appointments.
The dearth of those extra superior widgets wasn’t an insurmountable downside because it was potential to work round these points by syncing with Apple’s Calendar app and utilizing these widgets as an alternative. Nevertheless, that was nonetheless a bit awkward, particularly for many who would have most well-liked to take away the built-in Calendar app totally.
So, the addition of those further widgets is nice information for these on Google Calendar, however on this case, it’s moderately uncommon that they took so long as they did to point out up.
Google might have a protracted historical past of sluggish rollouts in terms of many iPhone options — it took almost a yr after iOS 13 was launched earlier than darkish mode got here to Gmail, and darkish mode didn’t arrive in Google Maps till shortly earlier than iOS 15 was launched — however on this case, it was surprisingly on the ball when it got here to Lock Display widgets.
Barely a month after iOS 16 launched the flexibility to customise your Lock Display and add these widgets, Google proudly introduced a plethora of recent widgets for Gmail and Chrome to Maps and Google Lens. In reality, there have lengthy been widgets for almost each different Google app and repair out there, together with Drive, Search, Information, Translate, and extra.
By that commonplace, Google Calendar has been conspicuously absent, and it’s all of the extra perplexing that it’s taken the corporate one other 16 months so as to add it.
Thoughts you, it’s not the one function that Google appears to be taking an unusually very long time with. A yr in the past, the corporate introduced that it might be bringing Reside Actions to Google Maps as a part of its new “glanceable instructions.” Though we lately noticed some proof that it is perhaps coming quickly, we’re nonetheless ready, and there’s been no official phrase from Google on when which may occur.
Google additionally usually rolls out its options slowly, not as app updates however as adjustments enabled on particular person accounts. This ends in not everybody getting new options on the identical time, as we noticed with Gmail’s darkish mode. It’s unclear if these new Google Calendar app widgets are following the identical sample; I needed to restart my iPhone earlier than they appeared for me, however that always occurs with newly put in widgets from any app. If you happen to’ve up to date to the most recent model of Google Calendar in your iPhone and nonetheless aren’t seeing them after a restart, you could simply have to attend a number of days in your flip.