Stephen Schenck / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google appears to be working on a new Clock widget.
- The widget would give you one-tap shortcuts to starting new timers.
Of all the Google apps we rely upon day after day, does any go more underappreciated than Clock? Clock does everything from waking us up in the morning to keeping track of how much longer our dinner’s going to take in the oven. It’s even learned how to predict the weather. Today we’re giving Clock a little overdue attention, as we spot a new widget Google’s got in the works.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
Right now, Google’s Clock app offers five widgets you can choose to deploy on your phone’s home screen. There’s the usual assortment of clock faces, plus the option to show multiple time zones at once, but the only really interactive widget is one that gives you access to the app’s stopwatch. If you thought that one was a useful widget to have, you’re going to like what’s coming next.
There’s a new update for Clock out today, version 7.9.1, and within it we discover Google’s work towards what should be a sixth widget. Like the stopwatch, this one brings Clock functionality straight to your home screen, giving you shortcuts to start a timer.
Here you can see it defaulting to options for 1, 5, and 10 minutes. Even with one timer already active, you’re free to tap another button on the widget to get a second one going at the same time — which looks perfect for quickly getting tasks going in something like a busy kitchen. We still need to spend some time playing around with the widget’s options, but a quick look suggests this should be plenty configurable, presumably with the option to choose the presets you want.
Considering the existing availability of the stopwatch widget, it’s almost surprising that it’s taken Google as long as it has to match that energy for timers. Better late than never!
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