Gmail for iOS gets inbox widget as Google Meet gets Picture-in-Picture, more [U]

Abner Li | Jan 11 2022 - 10:26 am PT

Google is rolling out a trio of productivity updates to its iPhone and iPad productivity apps. Notably, Gmail will get a homescreen widget, while iOS Picture-in-Picture is now available for Google Meet.

Update 1/11/22: Version 6.0.211226 of Gmail from yesterday rolls out the new “Email updates” widget. It joins the existing “Quick email actions” homescreen item.

Original 11/10/21: Gmail is getting another widget on iOS after the original was quietly removed sometime in the past year. The screenshot Google shared today shows your inbox with three recent emails that note the sender and subject.

What account they originate from is highlighted in the top-left corner by your profile picture, while there’s a compose FAB at the left. Functionality-wise, it’s identical to the Android version, which is due for a Material You overhaul. The iOS widget will be available in Gmail over the “next few weeks.”

Meanwhile, Google recently added Picture-in-Picture support to Meet. It’s a fairly standard implementation with the ability to resize the window. A PiP is also coming to the integrated video calling experience in mobile Gmail over the “next few weeks.”

For example, you might want to forward an email, share a document or just look something up while you’re chatting. Simply navigate out of the Google Meet app, and your meeting will be minimized in a window that you can move around your Home Screen.

The last upcoming update will see Google Sheets add support for shortcuts — hold down the command key to see a list of available ones:

Shortcuts make it easier to complete common and advanced tasks on Google Sheets using a small keyboard — like selecting a whole row or finding and replacing certain values.