A week ago we got our first glimpse at new weather widgets set to debut in the standard Google search app, hidden deep within the files of a bet APK. They weren’t all that impressive, coming in just one shape and light and dark variants. Today more eye-catching variants have appeared, this time conforming to the Material You design language of Android 12.
9to5Google uncovered the new widgets, which broadly match some of the elements seen in recent pixel advertising. Two options have been described: a larger rounded square with weather conditions, current temperature, and temp high and lows, and a smaller ovoid one with just the current condition and temperature for at-a-glance speed. Unlike the previous versions of the widgets, they’re following the dynamic theme of Android 12 on the Pixel demo unit.
Stephen says they look weird. The rest of us think that he’s weird. He wholeheartedly concurs on the second point.
We can expect to see these widgets — or something very like them — in the release version of Android 12. They may or may not come to older phones (without dynamic Material You themes, of course). I doubt they’ll become a mainstay: if you’re really invested in having weather on your homescreen, you’ve probably found something more effective by now. But they’ll be nice options to have nevertheless.
