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Google app readies new Sports widget for your Android homescreen [Gallery]

After introducing a Finance Watchlist for your homescreen earlier this year, the Google app on Android is getting ready to add a Sports widget. 

About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.


This widget simply shows teams that you follow and their upcoming, live, or past matches. Games appear in cards with the date/time, score, and league. A tap opens the full Knowledge Graph card in Google Search.

There’s a one- or two-column UI, with the latter prominently showcasing a game at the top. The widget can be resized to take up your entire homescreen.

You can refresh the widget from the top-right corner where “Last updated” is noted, while the widget offers two views: “Your games” and “Trending games.”

Users customize what teams they follow via the widget settings page, which also offers “Recommendations” for “games, teams, and leagues based on search activity.” 

Dynamic Color is leveraged, while this widget is not too different from the one for stocks. Google adding widgets for key functionality that’s usually served by notifications makes for quite an interesting expansion of the Search app. 

We enabled this Sports widget with Google app 14.49.38.29, which is currently in the beta channel.

Thanks to JEB Decompiler, from which some APK Insight teardowns benefit.

Dylan Roussel contributed to this article.

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Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com