You can now preview widgets when customizing Android 12’s homescreen with Dynamic Color

Abner Li | Dec 7 2021 - 6:12 pm PT

Yesterday’s December patch introduced a slew of fixes that add polish to key Android 12 experiences like homescreen widgets. One such change addresses how Material You customization was largely incomplete due to the absence of widgets.

Dynamic Color adapts your device to the current background, and the “Wallpaper & style” UI was revamped to let users easily preview their homescreen.

However, an issue saw widgets not properly appear in the preview. Sometimes you only got the shape of a widget with some “Loading…” text, and other times they were completely missing. This meant you could not see how a Dynamic Color palette was going to hue a widget until you exited the homescreen. If the coloring was not to your liking, you’d have to go back in to make changes.

Following the December update, widgets appear properly with live data (e.g., your actual emails with the Gmail widget) and not placeholder text. They will also change colors as different palettes and/or wallpapers are applied, which was not always the case before this month.

Meanwhile, Android 12 introduced a new “Device search” capability at the top of the app drawer. Following the December patch, the Pixel Launcher now lets you take that current query and search inside supported apps. At the moment, it only works with Settings and takes the form of a magnifying glass icon in the top-right corner. It’s unclear if Google has any plans to expand this.