iPhone desktop widgets that can go a step further

Original link: https://www.ifanr.com/app/1491470

Two years ago, Apple announced the new “desktop widget” feature at the WWDC developer conference. At that time, many people said, “Isn’t this the same as Android?”

In fact, the desktop widgets on iOS are more conservative, but there are still developers who have gnawed on this hard bone and built one popular application after another around the desktop widgets.

Healthview has turned desktop widgets into health data boards. Douban’s movie calendar allows people to meet new works every day. Livein and “Tie Tie” have turned desktop widgets into picture boards between close friends. The former is even continuous. 5 days to the top of the App Store free chart.

Desktop widgets perform well

Since the beginning of this year, applications built around desktop widgets have emerged one after another. Most of them refer to the design of the application Locket Widget , and friends or relatives can share their own pictures through the desktop widgets.

The core designs of livein, realmoji , and “Tie Tie” are similar, but the differences are reflected in shooting gameplay and friend restrictions. For example, realmoji focuses on emoji expressions, allowing users to take pictures with reference to emoji expressions, and transfer them to friends’ desktops to share their feelings.

Unlike “Tie Tie”, livein strictly limits the number of friends. People can share photos with friends and fans.

Based on the desktop widgets Locket Widget and livein have both topped the App Store free download list, the former has set a record of over 3 million downloads in 12 days, and the domestic application “Tie Tie” is also good on social media such as Xiaohongshu. The degree of discussion, as if the desktop widget has become a new track.

“Desktop is a more efficient entry point” is a word that has been repeatedly mentioned during the popularity of this type of desktop widget application.

Compared with the vast app on the desktop, the widgets on the desktop are larger and more eye-catching. Once you unlock the phone, you can see the latest pictures of close friends, which naturally attracts more people to download and try it.

Excellent widgets can increase app activity and attract new users to download to a certain extent, and it is not limited to social or tool fields. Wang Jiahao, the developer of the sports health app YaoYao, told me that since the launch of the desktop widget function, user activity has increased. rise to a certain extent.

Apple has always been very restrictive in desktop beautification, and desktop widgets are an exception. Excellent applications can attract users to download and use a good-looking and easy-to-use widget.

Compared with iOS, Android started earlier and more open in terms of desktop widgets. It supported interactive widgets very early, and various customized Android systems basically promoted them as one of the functional highlights, which is practical and efficient.

For example, in vivo’s OriginOS system, you can slide the weather application widget on the desktop to view the weather conditions in different time periods. The desktop widgets of shorthand, timer, health and other applications can directly click the button, and you can schedule, Voice recording, efficiency first.

Xiaomi is even more extreme in this regard, and even allows you to play various mini-games on the desktop, such as this small game of catching fish, the gameplay is similar to “Gold Miner”, but this time you can directly play on the desktop. Game on.

They’re like mini-apps after unlocking the desktop, and they’re good for playability and efficiency.

This is not the direction that Apple chose. Since the launch of the desktop widget function in iOS 14, it has not supported interactive widgets, and even affected the experience of applications such as “Tie Tie” due to various restrictions.

Limitations of iPhone Desktop Widgets

In the App Store comment area of ​​”Tie Tie”, “the picture on the desktop widget cannot be updated in real time” is one of the most common complaints. When new photos are shared between friends but cannot be updated on the desktop in time, the application is almost gone. exist value.

The “Tie Tie” official once gave a solution on Douyin, that is, to keep the application running all the time, and it cannot be closed through the multitasking function.

It is Apple that limits the refresh ability of iOS desktop widgets.

As early as the launch of iOS 14, Apple provided development documents for desktop widgets, and proposed a variety of operating methods for the refresh of widgets, of which two are more common:

• Widgets can be refreshed through the app while the app is running.
• When the application is closed, the developer can submit the corresponding refresh frequency settings. For example, the weather application is refreshed 5 times a day according to the time period, and the system will decide whether to refresh it according to the operation situation.

In the development document, Apple gave the reason for restricting the refresh of desktop widgets – saving resources and ensuring the battery life of the mobile phone. In the App Store comment area of ​​”Tie Tie”, some users said that running the application in the background for a long time consumes a lot of power. high.

In the opinion of Zhou Kaiwen, the developer of “50 Sound Origin”, Apple requires developers to use SwiftUI to build desktop widgets. In addition to reducing development costs and promoting cross-platform operation of widgets within the Apple ecosystem, it also optimizes data processing. , save resources and increase the battery life of the phone.

As a sports health monitoring application that needs to run for a long time, “Footprint” provides a special “power saving mode”. According to the personal experience of a friend of mine who uses an iPhone 12 mini, the power consumption increases by about 1%-2% in one night. .

In addition, Apple mentioned a concept “widgets are not mini-apps” in the video explaining the desktop widgets. The desktop should be the starting point for the operation of the mobile phone, not the end point. Press the Home button to return to the desktop, back to the original place.

Of course, there may also be aesthetic considerations. People turn on their phones dozens of times a day. Once the interactive widgets are flooded, the buttons on the desktop will also be flooded, and a bunch of buttons will not look beautiful.

On the other hand, widgets themselves take up more desktop space. When there are more applications, finding applications becomes a problem. Not everyone is willing to spend time tidying up the desktop. I also rely on the App resource library and search to find them. Apps, cumbersome interactive widgets can only exacerbate this problem.

The current iPhone desktop widget does not allow you to operate directly on the desktop. Even if you check a task on the to do application, you need to click the widget, then enter the application, and then complete the check. There are only shortcut commands. Such official applications are the exception.

Interactive widgets are a test of design ability and require people to be familiar with the corresponding operations. For example, in the desktop widget game on Xiaomi MIUI, I often accidentally long-press while playing, which causes the mobile phone to think I want to move the widget, and the game fails in the end. .

Swiping the weather widget left and right to check the weather conditions in different time periods actually has both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, the operation efficiency becomes higher, on the other hand, the sliding operation may cause conflicts between the left and right sliding switching of the desktop, resulting in false touches.

When Google released Android 12, it brought new desktop widgets, which were richer and more casual. At the same time, Google wanted to introduce new technologies and new tools to developers, not only to reduce costs, but also to develop Standards guarantee a smooth and battery-efficient experience for new desktop widgets.

Going further, new approaches are needed

Matt Moss, a Locket Widget developer who inspired a group of desktop widget applications, once said that the original intention of designing the application was to keep in touch with long-distance girlfriends and to keep it fresh by sharing pictures. common saying.

The rise of this trend proves that desktop widgets have great potential, but Apple’s restrictions prevent them from exploring more ways to play in the widget itself, and even display refreshes are limited.

For users, it is not clear at a glance whether such widgets are social applications or tool applications. It is common sense to keep running social applications such as WeChat, but it is not easy for other applications to obtain similar treatment, which requires Plenty of social connections.

Either the developers of livein and Locket Widget follow the requirements to further dig functions inside the application and keep users, or they rely on short video platforms such as Tik Tok to divert their popularity, only for love groups, the core design is highly convergent, users The freshness will soon be lost unless Apple changes direction.

On the eve of WWDC 2022, there are many revelations about the iOS 16 system, one of which is that the iPhone supports interactive widgets. According to the pictures released by leaksApplePro, most of them are common efficiency applications such as music and timers, one or two buttons. provide core functionality.

If Apple does launch an interactive desktop widget, either the user’s behavior makes it change its mind, or it finds a way to guarantee battery life and desktop widget experience at the same time.

Otherwise, interactive widgets can only “eat ashes” on the negative screen.

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