Software
Google's latest Gmail widget highlights iOS widget concerns
Google's Gmail program has been upgraded to iOS 14 with a new widget, but it's probably not the sort of Gmail widget you would have been looking for.
There's just one iOS 14 Gmail widget that does only one thing: provide fast access to your inbox, compose menu, or scan. There is no specific preview of your mailbox content, no option to arrange mail by archiving or deleting without opening the window, or any way to read the incoming post. The most engaging feature is a basic "unread" counter, something that the app icon has been capable of for years.
Part of it is on Google—other email applications, such as Spark, have developed more robust widgets. Although much of the fault rests on Apple's shoulders, with its rigid restrictions on what iOS widgets can do. Specifically, Apple widgets are built to be non-interactive. That's why you can't find out the alert widget to-do list products, or why Spotify or Apple Music widgets don't just offer play and pause functions.
Seems like we’re starting to see the limits of how Apple implemented widgets in iOS 14. Gmail’s seems... questionably helpful. pic.twitter.com/WKMeXd1UlD
— Chris Welch (@chriswelch) November 18, 2020
As the company's developer guidelines note: "Widgets present read-only information and do not support interactive features such as scrolling or switching." Apple does give developers the ability to allow widgets to keep up-to-date on regularly updating in the background, but it's a long way from ever allowing interactive features.
It's likely that Apple could be lagging behind what it allows developers to do with widgets in upcoming iterations of iOS; after all, iOS 14 is only the first iteration of the feature. But until the organization fully changes direction on what sort of features it wants to include widgets, we appear to be faced with these more minimal widgets in the near future.
