Android supported lock screen widgets in its early years, but Google removed that feature with Android 5.0. However, Samsung continued supporting lock screen widgets, and that might have inspired Google to bring that feature back to stock Android with the release of Android 15 soon.
Google could bring back lock screen widgets with Android 15
Google has released four Android 15 beta updates, and it has been revealed that the company is working to bring lock screen widgets support. Lock screen widgets were spotted in the first Android 15 beta release, but the feature was quite buggy, and Google has improved it with the latest beta release. Android Authority spotted that Google has fixed most bugs related to lock screen widgets, but it is only available for tablets.
On tablets running Android 15, a vertical bar appears on the right side of the screen. You can drag it to the left to reveal a page called ‘Glanceable Hub’ that is dedicated to showing widgets. You can add, remove, or rearrange widgets on that page. However, you can’t resize widgets. Once you are done editing that page, you can swipe back and forth between the lock screen and the Glanceable Hub page.
Up to six widgets are visible on the page in a single view, and more widgets can be viewed by swiping the page further to the left. The new beta version of Android 15 lets you interact with widgets, which means you can do things like playing/pausing music through the YouTube Music widget.
It isn’t clear when Google plans to release this feature, but it could launch it with the Pixel Tablet 2. Since Google is officially supporting lock screen widgets, Samsung could benefit from not having to do custom coding to include them in One UI. One UI 7.0 could simply use Android 15’s stock widget screen, reducing development time and resources.