20 best Android widgets Fill your Home screens with the best widgets for Android

20 best Android widgets

Fill your Home screens with the best widgets for Android

One of the exciting and innovative things about Android has always been its use of widgets, which, to the uninitiated, are best described as little live apps that are embedded into your Home screens.

You can have an animating photo frame that pulls out a selection of pics from your phone's gallery, a serious news ticker, constantly updating share prices, annoying social network status updates from people you hardly know - there's a widgetised version of pretty much any type of mobile app you can think of.

What is an Android widget?

Widgets can cause a bit of confusion among newcomers to Android, as they don't open like normal apps from your phone's big list of applications. Instead, widgets are activated by long-pressing on a space on the Home screen, then installed into the nearest available slot.

There are big widgets, wide widgets, little ones that only take up one standard icon slot, and there are also some absolutely terrible spam ones that look a complete mess. So here are our top 20 Android widgets to brighten up your Android phone's workspace.

1. AudioManager

It can be a little confusing delving through Android's numerous menu screens to try to find the particular setting to adjust the ring tone volume - so have it all presented as a nice widget instead.

AudioManager is nice looking, it lets you see what volume everything's at, and pops up adjustment slide bars when pressed. You life will get 0.01 percent easier with it.

2. Quick Battery

A teeny tiny one-by-one size widget, Quick Battery isn't particularly glamorous - but it does a better and prettier job of representing your phone's battery status than anything else. Plus, when installing the widget, you can choose what you want it to link to - so pressing it can open up the power settings page or... Angry Birds. Anything.

3. Extended Controls

The standard Android power strip is a useful widget that lets you quickly turn off Wi-Fi, adjust the screen brightness and toggle GPS, Bluetooth and data syncing, but Extended Controls adds more. Loads more, from one-touch USB tethering to airplane mode and even switching your phone's vibration keyboard settings on or off. Plus it's visually customisable, too.

4. ColorNote Notepad Notes

Everyone loves the classic Post-It note style of thing, and that's whatColorNote brings to your Android Home screen. Tiny post-its, one icon square, each linked to either a text note or a simple to-do list. They look cute and you can change the colours for an extra adrenaline rush.

5. Evernote

The excellent Evernote comes with a lovely little widget. While it's not visually that impressive, it adds very convenient shortcuts to your Home screen that make using the data-syncing, scheduling app even easier to use. Instant access to notes, searches, voice memos and more. Just don't judge it by its looks.

6. HTC Bookmarks

One for all the HTC owners out there. Its bookmarks widget is an excellent way to put one of your empty Home screens to use, with it giving you a full-size, scrolling list of bookmarks right there in front of your fingers. It's so useful, it's easier to quit the browser and select a link from here than navigate HTC's own in-browser bookmark system.

7. Facebook for Android

While the Android Facebook app seems to be a little slow in development and still misses several key features, its Home screen widget is a lesson in simplicity and elegance. It has a clean look, comprising of only a text box for your latest amusing thought, and a scrollable list of recent status updates from your chums. White, clean, stylish and nice.

8. Moon Phase Pro

If you live in a place where you're not constantly illuminated by council street lights, you might be aware of the Moon. It's a sort of massive rock in the sky that's nice and relaxing to look at. It also changes shape depending on the time of the month.

You can keep track of these changes with the Moon Phase Pro widget, so you'll always have something to talk to Sir Patrick Moore about, should you happen to bump into him in your local supermarket. It also makes a very nice live wallpaper.

Best Android clock widget

9. Fancy Widget

There are quite a few apps out there that copy the iconic HTC Sense clock and its animating weather system, with one of the finest being Fancy Widget. It wins because it's free, offering a more traditional Android-style digital clock option, customisable text colours, alternate skins, transparency effects and more. There's also a Pro version for a couple of quid, if you need even more options.

Best Android weather widget

10. The Weather Channel