Android 12 is completely revitalizing widgets, and even though a public release won’t be available until this fall, we’re already starting to see the effects. Spotify is working on revamping its music player, Chrome is testing out a new quick action search widget, and now, it’s time for Google Photos to do the same.
The folks at 9to5Google were able to discover and enable a new widget in development for the photo storage app. Once placed, this tool will recreate the Memories tab along the top of the Photos app right on your home screen. Google already offers a very similar widget on iOS, and it’s great to see it coming to Android in some form.
Just like on iPhone, this new Memories widget comes in various shapes and sizes, though the default 2×2 grid ends up tall and slim due to how the home screen is structured. Unlike on iOS, however, you can resize it as you want, with images expanding or shrinking to fit whatever shape you end up using.
The Memories widget on iOS.
Although the widget isn’t fully working as of yet, it should be able to display anything that shows up in your Memories grid within the app itself. Google is continuing to expand its categories for resurfacing old pictures, which we’ve been keeping track of each month. So the next time you want to revisit all of your past camping trips, you might not even need to open the app itself.
Memories in Google Photos.
The code for this new widget was found in version 5.49 of Google Photos, though it’s not enabled just yet. You can still download the latest update for the app using the link below or grab the APK from APK Mirror.
