How to Create Your Own Android Widget

Widgets are minimal versions of apps that run directly on your Android home screen and can be extremely practical to have around. Most apps these days offer widget support, and you can easily access them directly from your home screen. However, if you’re not satisfied with what’s available, you can always create your own Android widgets. Here we show how you can do so.

How to Add Widgets to Your Android Smartphone

Adding new widgets to your Android screen is pretty easy. You just have to follow the steps outlined below.

1. Long press on an empty space on your home screen.

2. A menu will show up below. Select Widgets from here.

3. You’ll be taken to your phone’s list of available widgets. Most apps offer multiple options. Select the widget you want to use, then drag and drop it to the home screen.

4. Some widgets offer some customization options that allow you to personalize them while others don’t.

How to Create Your Own Android Widget

You can create your own widget with the help of third-party apps. One such app is KWGT Kustom Widget Maker, and for the purpose of this tutorial, we are using it to design a simple event reminder widget that links to the Google Calendar.

The app also includes a library of widget templates you can use or modify according to your preferences. So if you don’t want to build a new widget from scratch, you can simply take advantage of what the app puts at your disposal.

Personalize Your Widget Experience

1. Bring up the list of available widgets on your device.

2. Scroll down until you locate the KWGT widgets templates and select a widget from the options.

3. Drag it to your home screen and move it into position.

4. Tap on the empty widget to open it in the KWGT app.

5. You’ll be taken to your editing space, which features six tabs: Items, Background, Layer, Globals, Shortcuts and Touch. Each tab allows you to customize a certain aspect of the widget.

6. At this time, your widget is simply a blank container that needs to be populated with various objects. But first you should add a background to your new widget. Tap on the background tab and select a color. Alternatively, you can use an image from your device.

Adding the Objects

1. Next, tap on Items to start adding additional elements to your container. Locate the “+” button in the upper-right corner to start adding them.

2. You’ll be taken to a panel where you can select various objects to add. For our purposes, we need an image, which was previously downloaded on our device.

3. Once the image has been added to the widget, tap on Position to arrange in the desired location within your widget space.

4. When you’re finally happy with the result, go ahead and tap on the File icon in the upper-left corner, then again on the “+” to add the next element.

5. This time select Text.

6. A new Text option will be added in Items underneath the image. Tap on it to bring up the options for text.

7. Tap on Text to start imputting the words you want your widget to display. To change the style in which your text is written, tap on Font.

8. Use the Position option to arrange the text within the widget.

9. Now that your widget is almost done, there’s one more thing we should do. We want to connect the widget to Google Calendar so that when we tap on it, it will take us directly to the app. To do that, we have to tap on the File icon again.

10. From the menu below, swipe until you find the Touch option.

11. Tap on “Kustom Action -> Advanced Editor” and select the Action. In this case, “Launch app.”

12. Select the app from the list that appears.

13. You’ve created the connection, as you can see in the Touch tab.

14. That’s it. Now save your widget and go back to your home screen and test your creation. It should work just fine.

Conclusion

KWGT Kustom Widget Maker is all about being creative. Spend some time with the app and familiarize yourself with the different objects and icons. It’s definitely an application you need to play around with to get the hang of it. However, once you do, you can really start making some pretty cool-looking widgets.

If you want to keep customizing your Android, then perhaps you’d like to learn how to set custom icons for your apps or how to give your lock screen a makeover.