In addition to the one we spotted in November, Google Contacts for Android is getting a second homescreen widget that will let you pin favorites.
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.
The first widget is called “Individual Contact.” Our latest look at it shows that the scallop shape from November for the profile photo has been replaced by a simple circle. You get a calling shortcut in the bottom-left, while one for texting is across it. This widget is resizable and you can have it as a bar that includes the contact name. Dynamic Color theming is applied throughout.
Meanwhile, “Favorite Contacts” is the new widget to “Create a shortcut for up to 7 of your top starred contacts.” As we’ve enabled, the default size is 4×1 with images shown in rounded rectangles. Expanding gives you two rows, while you can make it even bigger for a column layout that’s quite nice, especially on tablets.
It’s basically the homescreen equivalent of the Favorite contacts Tile that Wear OS gained in December.
Behind-the-scenes, Contacts is using Jetpack Glance to build these widgets, with Google TV and its upcoming widget taking a similar approach.
These two Google Contacts widgets are not yet rolled out and comes as the app on tablets is set to get a navigation rail redesign on tablets.
Thanks to JEB Decompiler, from which some APK Insight teardowns benefit.
Dylan Roussel contributed to this article.
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