These Material You widgets were first discovered in November
Google Contacts is one of the most basic apps available for your favorite android phone, but without which no phone can be shipped. There was one some visual changes made to the application in the last two years as Google set out to establish UI consistency across its apps. To this end, we came across new 3×2 widgets for Contacts app back in november as a feature under development. Google is beginning the wider rollout of the revamped widgets, which include new 2×2 and 4×1 widgets for your home screen.
Among the new additions is an individual contact widget, which comes in a 2×2 format by default, but can be customized in a number of ways, including a 3×1 vertical bar format that displays the contact’s name, followed by icons to send texting and calling. When you have more than one number saved, the widget displays a pop-up prompting you to select the message or call, with the option to save your preference indefinitely. Unfortunately, it looks like you can’t specify a preferred messaging service if you’re not using Google Messages with the contact in question.
We spotted this new widget with app version 4.5.24.517943267, which can be downloaded from APKMirror.
9to5Google also managed to find a 4×1 Favorite Contacts widget that places favorite contacts on the home screen. Users have the option of viewing favorite contacts saved on the device or their Google account. Contacts without a picture get their name initial instead, as shown in the screenshot below. 4×1 favorite contacts aren’t widely rolling out to everyone, according to 9to5, which we can confirm. But it should appear widely for all users over the next few weeks.
This could be one of many changes to Google’s apps preparing for the big Android 14 launching this fall. Ahead of the software’s release later this year, we were treated to nuggets of information on some of the visual additions included in the update, including an improved live wallpaper experience as well as a new scalable android volume slider to replace the existing option, which tends to look awkward on larger screens.