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In 2020, Widgets are Way More Important on iOS

Posted by Matt Birchler
— 1 min read

A few weeks ago, the email service, Hey, released an update to their iOS app that added widgets. The widgets are great, and I use two of them because they’re so perfectly suited to how Hey works.

The Android app does not support widgets.

Despite Basecamp keeping their iOS and Android apps in lock step with feature parity, Android’s 10+ year lead on widgets, and Android’s enhanced widget functionality, the company hasn’t been compelled to bring widgets to the platform yet.

To me this is the perfect example of how well Apple executed on widgets in their first form. There are still issues and limitations that I hope are addressed in future updates, but this is what we mean when we say “MVP”.