Techunim: Google Calendar, News, and Fi getting new Material You widgets for Android 12

Following last week’s initial tweet parade during the Pixel 6 launch event, Google today gave another look at new Material You widgets for Android 12.

This blog post starts by re-highlighting widgets that have already rolled out: Maps (more recent), Keep, and Clock. The “Google Photos Memories widget will be the first to use the new freeform widget frames in Material You,” while there’s another look at Drive’s upcoming search field with suggested document list and “Now Playing & Recently played” in YouTube Music.

Google says these Material You widgets are “officially live” on Android 12, but that is not the case for Photos, Drive, or YT Music. They must still be in the process of rolling out. In terms of what’s new and available today, the Fi “Data Usage Widget” for MVNO subscribers gets Material You tweaks like Dynamic Color and a thicker progress indicator.

While unmentioned in the blog, we see a new “Calendar schedule” widget. The app’s Material You redesign brought a refreshed widget that only saw light revisions from the previous M2 design. The new one is more modern with a large round square FAB in the top-right, while opposite that is the day and date. It can be scaled to be quite large.

The company looks to also be redesigning the “Google News’ widget so it’s no longer a card. Rather, the new design puts images in a large pill up top, while the publication and headline appears below.

We have more glimpses of the Gmail widget, while Chrome’s homescreen item lets you start a new search, open an Incognito tab, and perform a voice search. It’s straight from the iOS version of the browser. The below renders look to be from a tablet running Android 12L.