10 Great Widgets for your Android Phone Homescreen

Android is one of the few mobile operating systems that supports the concept of Widgets. Widgets are not typical applications, but rather elements that lie on one of the many customizable homescreens that all Android phones come with. They display useful information without you having to go into an app and even toggle some important features easily without having to go into the settings menu. Here are some of the good ones that you must try on your Android phone.

Tiny Flashlight

If your Android phone has an LED flash next to the camera (and bless your phone if it does), then you can use it as a torch in just a single tap. Tiny Flashlight is an application that has a widget that you can place on the homescreen which allows you to toggle the LED flash on or off by simply tapping on the widget.

Android Market Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.devuni.flashlight

Fancy Widget

How many of y'all like the HTC Sense User Interface? I for one do, and the first thing that reminds me of their UI overlay is the Weather and Time widget on the main homescreen. For those not using Android phones other than HTC, here's a nice little widget that gives you that similar feature. Fancy Widget shows you the time in big block digits, the weather with symbols (like a bright sun or a foggy cloud) along with high, low and current temperature. It also uses geo-location to automatically work out the city you're in. As a bonus, you can also add other useful info like battery level on the widget.

Android Market Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.anddoes.fancywidget

APNDroid

Smartphones of today tend to consume more data because of all those Internet-dependent apps and widgets, and sometimes you just want them to stop -- either to prevent your battery from draining any further or if you feel you're data usage is going above the limits.

APNDroid is a neat little widget that stops all mobile internet traffic (3G, GPRS or EDGE) at the tap of a finger. Tapping it again releases the Internet floodgates.

Android Market Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.code.apndroid

Data Counter Widget

If you're on a limited data plan, then you'll be relieved if you're shown your usage right on the homescreen. The Data Counter Widget displays your 2G/3G data usage and your Wi-fi usage as well in MBs. You can view a month by month log, monitor for a week or even from a custom time (say, your bill cycle date).

Use the Data Counter and the APNDroid widget mentioned above in conjunction to get a grip on your mobile internet usage.

Android Market Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.roysolberg.android.datacounter

AutoRotate OnOff

Devices like the iPad have a physical orientation lock, which prevents the accelerometer from automatically changing the screen from portrait to landscape as you hold the device. While reading on an Android phone while lying down, the screen would switch into an unwanted orientation and I hated going a couple of levels deep into the settings menu just to turn it off.

AutoRotate OnOff is a neat little widget that does just that, again at the tap of the finger.

Android Market Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.curvefish.widgets.autorotateonoff

Monthly Calendar

Of the default set of widgets that the Android OS has, it is embarrassing to know that the calendar widget doesn't have a monthly view option. It's always nice to have a view of the entire month at a glance.

The Calendar Widget gives you just that, but unfortunately isn't supported on devices with a QVGA resolution. For all those poor souls, S2 Calendar Widget 2 is an alternative.

ChompSMS

ChompSMS is actually a text messaging replacement for the default one on Android with many features. But the matter of focus for this article is its widget, that shows unread messages right on the homescreen. It shows you the name of the sender and the message preview, and you can even reply or delete that message from the homescreen itself.

Another boon for constant texters is that if your friends are also using ChompSMS, then you can send them SMSs for free (we're assuming they're sent over the internet).

Android Market Link https://market.android.com/details?id=com.p1.chompsms

Gauge Battery Widget

If you're not going to install the 'Fancy Widget' we mentioned before, then having a dedicated battery widget would make sense, especially when the default battery meter in Android doesn't clearly portray the amount of battery remaining.

We've found a rather sweet looking one from the hordes of battery meters available, and this one shows you a gauge like a car's tachometer.

Android Market Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=net.hubalek.android.gaugebattwidget

Color Note

It's a shame that Android doesn't have a built-in app to take notes. Color Note is not only a note-taking application, but it also allows you to create small post-its of the note on the homescreen. Really useful to maintain a to-do list that you can keep a watch over, I'd say.

Android Market Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.socialnmobile.dictapps.notepad.color.note

Stock Market Widgets

For people investing in the stock market, the valuation of their current holdings is something they'd want to keep their eye on. Ministocks Stock Widget has a simple design and shows four stocks per widget. You'll be shown daily change in percentage or absolute, profit and loss and even foreign exchange prices. The data is fed to it by Yahoo! Finance .