10 great, useful, free Android widgets

posted by Nick T. / Apr 05, 2012, 4:44 AM

Home screen widgets are an essential part of the Android experience. However, even though your Android smartphone comes with a whole bunch of them pre-loaded, the Google Play store holds many, many more. They can substitute your stock ones, or even add new functionality to your device.

Today we present you with 10 Android widgets that we would recommend trying out. Some of them come on their own while others come as a part of an Android application, but all of them have one thing in common, namely that they won't cost you a dime.

Now feel free to go over our list of 10 free Android widgets, and if you think that we have forgotten one that should have been included, just let us know by dropping a comment below.

10 free Android widgets

View more + 5 images

FEATURED VIDEO

Options

26 Comments

1. Mozarrt

Posts: 301; Member since: Oct 08, 2011

What I need is some nice minimalistic widgets, not big colourful widgets clogging up my screen. I should have gone Windows Phone.

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 4:51 AM 6

4. frydaexiii

Posts: 1476; Member since: Dec 01, 2011

Just download Launcher 7 then. Live tiles are not minimalistic, they're just widgets with no personality. No one forced you to use these widgets and besides, simple minimalistic widgets can be found on the Play Shop (I use some of them myself) if you bothered to search. I don't see how anyone can say Tiles are better than widgets...

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 6:52 AM 16

7. Mozarrt

Posts: 301; Member since: Oct 08, 2011

Most widgets look like they come from Android 1.5, big and bloated. I already have my homescreen how I like it, but for an OS with 500.000 apps, I find the choice very meager.

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 7:41 AM 2

11. karanstyle

Posts: 188; Member since: Jun 26, 2011

Great Thanks man I'm loving it!! Launcher 7 on my Android is giving me WP feel(not fully but still feels faster, cleaner and bolder!). Try using this "WP7 Lock Lite" & "WP7 Notification".

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 8:09 AM 1

10. karanstyle

Posts: 188; Member since: Jun 26, 2011

Seriously Dude You should go for a Lumia 800 0r 900 than a bulls**t Android. Sadly, We never see Phone Arena writing any articles about WP like: "Top 10 apps" or "Comparitivly which WP is better in HTC, NOKIA, TOSHIBA"?

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 8:07 AM 0

12. andro.

Posts: 1999; Member since: Sep 16, 2011

There are many great stream lined widgets available,android pro widgets for example have some great minimalistics themes,clutter free

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 8:16 AM 3

14. karanstyle

Posts: 188; Member since: Jun 26, 2011

Try naming some Like I did for Windows Phones... Oh! I too have android and there are hardly any. So, let me use my "Laucher 7" that gives me the feel of WP7 than B'android.

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 8:32 AM 1

22. SleepingOz unregistered

Nokia fanboys' stupidity are worse than iSheeeps.

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 12:45 PM 4

26. karanstyle

Posts: 188; Member since: Jun 26, 2011

I care about Tigers in real than Fake ones in Picture :P

posted on Jun 25, 2013, 5:05 PM 0

23. protozeloz

Posts: 5396; Member since: Sep 16, 2010

what kind of phone you have? and what kind of widgets you are looking for?

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 12:56 PM 0

5. shadowcell

Posts: 300; Member since: Mar 28, 2012

Beautiful Widgets is also one of my favorite integrated weather and clock apps. ZDBox is another which is pretty much a "swiss army" widget for things like toggling Wi-Fi or sound or even monitoring data usage with alerts.

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 7:38 AM 1

6. islanderbaw

Posts: 8; Member since: Dec 27, 2011

Nice round-up . . . functionality may come on phones but many different developers offer slightly different implementations and capabilities. Lots to select from. [Moto has their own Power Bar; no ads]

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 7:38 AM 1

8. DigitalMD

Posts: 226; Member since: Feb 17, 2010

Lame. I'm still looking for a useful email widget that is equal to HTC's Sense email widget, Nothing exist.

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 7:43 AM 1

9. shadowcell

Posts: 300; Member since: Mar 28, 2012

I just use dedicated apps like gmail and yahoo since they work best. There are several great apps that work nicely with Microsoft Exchange.

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 8:06 AM 1

15. frydaexiii

Posts: 1476; Member since: Dec 01, 2011

Go widgets?

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 8:34 AM 1

16. ThePolak

Posts: 14; Member since: Jan 26, 2012

I think that you should check one small app: Cool Tool. This one is all I need on my screen, no widgets.

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 8:52 AM 0

17. Dijin

Posts: 6; Member since: Jan 09, 2012

Widgetsoid! FTW

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 9:44 AM 0

18. Cwebb

Posts: 501; Member since: Oct 05, 2011

I like how Sense and its own app store cover almost all of these apps

posted on Apr 05, 2012, 10:36 AM 1

20. MorePhonesThanNeeded

Posts: 645; Member since: Oct 23, 2011

Looks like the WP fanboys have landed, android apps have different sizes of widgets for most apps, not sure what crap you people are talking about, probably should learn how to use your phone before complaining about it. Probably don't even own an android phone. I love the plethora of apps to choose from in the Play Store, when the WP app store gets stuff like this then all of a sudden it will ok, bunch of clowns. I tried WP it's a very fluid OS, but I don't really like the dark background for everything, and it looks too much like my zune which isn't saying much. But for customization sake and just enjoying your phone as much as possible I prefer an Android over all else because it's just what I like to be able to freely enjoy my phone since I spent quite a bit on the damn thing.