Google presents a set of iOS 16 lock screen widgets for your iPhone

Google announced this morning that it will bring access to a number of its popular apps, including Search, Maps, Gmail and more, to the lock screen of the Iphone. With the updated version of Apple's mobile operating system - iOS 16, out today - iPhone owners can now personalize their device by adding widgets to their lock screen, instead of just from their home screen, as before.

These mini widgets come in three sizes: circular and rectangular, which appear below the lock screen clock, and line, which appears above the clock as a line of text and symbols.

Google widgets will take advantage of all three formats.

The company, in a blog post, previewed its iOS 16 widgets, which include a search widget that lets you search Google from the lock screen, even using your voice or device photo (Google Lens). This widget will also offer a Google Translate widget.

Image credits: Google

Similarly, a new Chrome Lock Screen widget will allow users to search, including voice search, but will also offer a button to quickly launch a search in incognito mode. It includes a widget that adds Chrome's Dino game, which usually appears when Chrome is offline, also as a lock screen option. (While we love the dino game, we can't imagine giving up our limited lock screen ownership for this one - but to each our own!)

The new Google Drive Lock Screen widget, meanwhile, will allow you to open a suggested Drive file or followed files and folders with a single tap, which could be useful for lock screens focused on the company.

And the Gmail widget will help you keep an eye on your inbox. This widget is available in all three sizes, as the online widget can appear above the clock to show a shortened date (like "Wed 7"), followed by the number of new messages in the inbox. A rectangular widget breaks down the number of new posts in each category - like Social, Updates or Promotions - which helps users better understand whether incoming mail is actually important. A smaller circular widget simply displays the number of new posts you have.

Image credits :Google

Another app, Google Maps, is also adding lock screen widgets after the release of iOS 16. These will be useful for travelers and commuters as the widgets will offer timely traffic updates actual and estimated travel times to places like your office or home. Additional widgets will also allow you to tap to find restaurants, shops, cafes or hotels along your route.

Image credits :Google

Finally, a Google News widget displays short titles on the lock screen, which you can tap to launch the Google News app.

Google previously introduced home screen widgets when they first became available with the launch of iOS 14 in 2020, later bringing interactive elements to many of those same apps, including Gmail, Drive, Chrome and others on users' home screens. But one widget it offers on the home screen is missing from this new collection of lock screen widgets: Google Calendar. This seems like an odd oversight given that meetings and events are the kind of at-a-glance information that many would want quick access to, like the lock screen provides. Hopefully the launch of this widget is just delayed but still ongoing.

The company hasn't offered an exact timeline for the availability of the new lock screen widgets, the...