11 of the best and most useful Android widgets you can get

After Apple's widget implementation in iOS 14, Microsoft followed the trend with Windows 11 update. The situation has led to a renewed interest in the form factor across all platforms, including Android. And since Android app developers have had a lot more time to perfect their widgets, it's no wonder that there are many polished home screen decorations out there. Here are a few of our favorite ones.

How to add widgets to your home screen

If you're yet to dip your toes into the widget waters, you can up your current selection on most Android phones by long-pressing on a blank area of the home screen, then choosing Widgets on the menu that pops up. Any app on your device with widgets will appear in the list — just tap and hold a widget to place it.

On many phones, you can alternatively also long-press an app icon on your home screen to bring up its widgets. This route is usually faster when you already know which app you want to use a widget from.

Now that you know how to add one to your screen, we've rounded up a bunch of the best and most useful widgets available.

KWGT Kustom Widget Maker

This shouldn't come as a surprise to many out there. If you consider yourself a power widget user, then KWGT is a must: it lets you create your own personalized widgets through a straightforward editor that will make you a master crafter in no time. Some art assets require a premium upgrade (KWGT is part of the Play Pass, for what it's worth), but many are available for free. Plus, you can put together your own widgets for digital and analog clocks, live maps, battery and memory meters, music players, text messages, and much more.

Overdrop

There's a reason why there are so many weather widgets on the Play Store — they're incredibly useful. They allow you to see what the conditions will be like for the next few hours, days, or weeks with a quick glance. Overdrop is one of the best weather apps, and its widgets are informative, elegantly crafted, and clear. Overdrop widgets aren't limited to showing weather information only. You can add date, time, calendar, and other widgets with different styles on the home screen.

Some designs and layouts require a premium upgrade, and in-app purchases can cost anywhere between $1.99 to $18.99, but there are plenty that you can play around with for free as well. It's good to see Overdrop offering a one-time purchase and a monthly/yearly subscription.

Telegram

It's no secret that the AP team is big fan of Telegram messaging app. It's feature-rich, cloud-based, and works natively on all the platforms including Android. Telegram offers a couple of widgets to place on the home screen. You can either add a conversation widget with up to four people/groups or place a bigger widget with recent Telegram chats. We prefer the conversation widget to open a specific chat with a single tap on the home screen.

My Data Manager

Not everyone works with unlimited mobile data on their phones. To avoid an eye-popping carrier bill at the end of the month, you should keep track of data usage on your phone. While Android OS allows you to set data limits from the Settings menu, there is no easy way to check data usage from the home screen. Once you add the billing cycle and data limit for cellular, Wi-Fi, and roaming, you can check the live data usage at a glance on the home screen. The app supports both the light and dark theme widgets. We hope to see better-looking widgets with rounded corners in future updates.

Musicolet

Don't let the music stop because you have to open up an app and work through a series of menus to find the tunes you want. Musicolet puts playback and queue management controls right on the home screen for you, and you can customize the widget's look (including its transparency) in various ways. However, Musicolet only plays local files stored on your Android device and doesn't work with streaming services. The app offers intuitive UI, multiple queues, folder browsing, sleep timer, gapless playback, Android Auto support, and playback controls from the home screen. The app also plays nicely with the Material You theme to extract colors from your wallpaper when you set it up.

TickTick

TickTick is basically the Swiss army knife of productivity apps on Android. You can use it to manage tasks, view calendar events, develop habits, and calculate focus time. TickTick offers over thirteen widgets to choose from. Based on your preference, you can add a calendar, today's habits, weekly agenda, or your day timeline widget on the home screen. And yes, they all come with dark theme support. Among them, the default pomo timer widget is our favorite one to check the remaining time for a task on the phone's home screen.

SeriesGuide

SeriesGuide is perfect for keeping track of the movies and TV shows you've watched, are watching, or are planning to watch. The widget it comes with is perfect for quickly checking when your favorite shows are appearing next — the time and the date the show airs, the channel or streaming service broadcasting it, and the episode and the season you're up to. Pay to support the app, and get yourself some extra widget customization options, too.

Deepstash

Your Android phone keeps you in touch, informed, entertained, and much more. Adding Deepstash can keep you motivated and inspired as well. Deepstash offers snippets from popular books, articles, podcasts, and more; the app's widgets provide quotes and the best ideas from popular books, articles, and well-known personalities. Simply add Deepstash's quote widget on the home screen and start your day with an inspiring quote.

Google News

Keeping in touch with the day's developments has never been so straightforward. The recently revamped Google News app has a clean, clear, and informative widget, giving you the weather forecast and a snapshot of what's happening right now. You can tap through any story to see full coverage of it, or you can just let the top headlines pass before your eyes as you get on with other business on your Android device.

CPU Monitor

From spotting troublesome apps to working out when it's finally time to upgrade your phone, the widget that comes along with CPU Monitor packs an awful lot of information into a very tight space. A total of four different widgets help you keep up with current CPU load, battery temperature, and spikes in processing demand over time. CPU Monitor can also set up a persistent notification to display this data, too, if needed. CPU Monitor's neatly designed widgets will showcase CPU temperature, memory usage, and remaining battery percentage on your Android phone.

Sectograph

With many of us scrambling to fit more and more into each day, an app (and accompanying widget) like Sectograph can make a substantial difference to your schedule planning. It visualizes your calendar as a 24-hour clock face, so you can see what you're supposed to be doing right now and what you've got coming up next at a glance – it's the perfect example of how widgets can be just as useful as fully-fledged apps sometimes.

Dazzle up your Android home screen

Plenty of great apps offer widgets, so the world is really your oyster when it comes to sprucing up your screen. While you are busy decorating your phone's home screen with third-party widgets, don't forget to check Material You widgets that Google brought with the Android 12 update. If you are confused about Google's new Material You design language, do read our dedicated guide to learn more.