You can finally add widgets related to your favorite streaming platform, YouTube, to your home screen. Two brand new widgets are being rolled out right now, which will allow users to quickly search and navigate the video platform app.
Both widgets are styled around Google’s Material You — an auto theme-ing solution, which aims to make your home screen stylish and clean. The widgets themselves present users with several shortcuts to specific YouTube functions or categories.
As of now, there are two widgets to choose from. One of them is more minimal, offering a direct YouTube search. That could potentially save you a tap or so, when compared to searching via the Google bar, as that covers the general web, instead of a specific app.
The second widget is admittedly more robust, as it offers not only the ability to search YouTube directly, which can take you to your favorite part of the app, such as your list of Subscriptions or your Library.
The amount of buttons present depends on how wide the widget is horizontally. And that really highlights the missed opportunity to have the search bar disappear when you shorten the widget. Including the bar on both widgets makes it a bit redundant, given that it’s already available separately. Oh well!
The new YouTube widgets, customized automatically through Material You.
The YouTube widgets are currently rolling out for users worldwide, so if you have Android 12 or later, you can check if you have them via:
Holding a finger on your home screen
Entering the Widgets menu
Scroll towards the bottom of the list, where the YouTube widgets are
If you aren’t seeing them yet, take a moment to check if you might have any pending updates, both regarding your system and the YouTube app specifically, and then try again.
It’s always great to have more customization options, especially in an age when we almost never see widgets get released. Google seems to be sticking to its Material You design agenda, so we hope that we will see more widgets from other apps soon.
Stan, also known as Stako, is a smartphone enthusiast who loves exploring the limits of Android customization. His journey with mobile tech began with the Nokia 5110 and evolved with devices like the BlackBerry 9350 Curve and Samsung Galaxy A4. Despite his love for Android, he holds equal respect for Apple, considering the iPhone 4s as a significant milestone in mobile tech. Stan started his writing career early, contributing to MetalWorld, and harbors a passion for creative writing. Beyond smartphones, he's interested in photography, design, composition, and gaming, often preferring solo projects to hone his objective thinking. He's also an avid student of open-source technology and consoles, with a special fondness for the Pebble Watch, Arduboy, and Playdate.
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