Gmail and Google News updates add iOS 16 Lock Screen widgets

Abner Li | Oct 3 2022 - 9:09 am PT

Following Chrome and Google Drive last week, Google has rolled out the iOS 16 Lock Screen widget updates to Gmail and Google News.

Version 6.0.220918 of Gmail rolled out to the App Store today with the “New Unread Messages” Lock Screen widget to “keep up with new messages by seeing how many unread emails are currently in your inbox.” It’s available in three sizes:

1×1 circle: Unread count and Gmail logo
2×1 rectangle: Unread count with breakdown that includes Chats and Spaces
Top/single line widget (above the time)

The Google News widget rolled out last week (version 5.61) to provide “top news” and let you “view the latest headlines.” The publication is noted at the top next to the app logo, with the headline appearing below with up to three lines of text. There’s just a 2×1 size here.

After today, we’re waiting for Google Maps (Frequent Trips with “real-time traffic updates and estimated travel times”) and Google Search. The latter will provide quick access to Google Lens and voice search.

After updating to the latest versions of each app, be sure to launch once before going to the Lock Screen editor to add. The widgets might otherwise not show up.