Everything is a widget.
Every time Apple's iOS system is updated, it brings something new. If what's new in iOS 15 this year is FaceTime's "simulcast sharing," then what's new in iOS 14 is "desktop widgets."
In September 2020, Apple launched the desktop widget on iOS 14, which became the most attractive new feature on iOS 14. Suddenly, the major technology media and fruit fans have lamented that "this function is too fragrant." Seeing the screen full of praise, Android fundamentalism is anxious: Android is tired of playing things, why do you (mainly refers to fruit powder) here, we have become a "new invention"?
Indeed, this thing for the Android party, as early as 2008, the first Android phone HTC Dream was available. However, there are manufacturers that applied to "widgets" earlier than Android, and it can be said that it is the "originator" of widgets.
The three evolutions of widgets
In 1984, Apple introduced the original home computer, the Macintosh 128k. This lightweight, portable, feature-rich computer, priced at $2495, is definitely the representative of high technology of the year. At that time, Bill Gates was also invited to endorse him. At that time, in addition to the simple and easy-to-use hardware design, this computer was also the first personal computer to successfully commercialize the GUI.
At that time, the Macintosh 128K was equipped with the System 1 operating system, and because it only had 128KB of memory, it was often impossible to run multiple programs at the same time. This results in data being lost at runtime whenever the program (such as a calculator) is closed. To solve this problem, Apple engineers designed a series of desktop accessories, such as alarm clocks, calculators, control panels, puzzles, etc. You can think of it as "pinning sticky notes" to the desktop on a Windows computer.
These desktop accessories became a special way for operating systems to achieve "multitasking" in that era, and were handed down. They are the original prototypes of today's various small components. So, if you go back to the source, it is not wrong to say that "widgets" were invented by Apple.
Perhaps Bill Gates was "inspired" by endorsing the Macintosh 128k, and in 1995, Bill Gates introduced an optional "dynamic desktop" feature on Windows 95 to make it easier for users to view Internet content directly on the desktop. Subsequently, the widget has been further developed on Windows 7.
In the Windows 7 system, users can select "desktop gadgets" from the right-click menu on the desktop, such as clocks, sticky notes, calendars, CPU information, etc., which are actually some lightweight and practical mini programs, and users can drag the gadgets added to the desktop to any location on the Windows 7 desktop.
This widget design not only makes it easier for users to obtain information, but also brings users the fun of DIY on the computer desktop, which is also a prototype of the "widget" we are using now. However, whether on Apple computers or Windows systems, the function of small components has not been carried forward, but smart phones have ushered in the spring of development.
People who used HTC's early smartphones should be familiar with something called a "page-turning clock." This is the killer trick to make the "widget" thing out of the circle. The "page turning clock" at that time was actually a "widget" that we are common today. Now, at one point, you can search for "HTC page turning clock" as a keyword, and you can also find various Manila-style page turning clocks. Some people even specifically look for tutorials just to implement this style of time display on iOS.
As the first mobile phone manufacturer equipped with Google Android system, HTC became the Android king in the hearts of many people. Although HTC gradually declined later, the function of small components also took root and spread on the Android system. However, most of the small components at that time relied on enthusiastic netizens to "generate electricity with love", the design style was not uniform, the interface was ugly, and they wanted to make a good-looking desktop, which was a proper technical job at that time, which was extremely unfriendly for small white players.
In a 2013 blog post, Drew Bamford, HTC's assistant vice president of user experience, pointed out the problem with most desktop widgets:
Most users cannot distinguish between apps and widgets;
Gadgets are not widely used, except for the most commonly used weather, clock, music, less than 10% of users use other widgets;
Most people don't make too many changes to their home screen, and about 80 percent of users don't change their home screen after the first month of use.
Compared with Android's "small improvements", Microsoft's Windows phone has taken the desktop widget in a new direction: live tiles. Microsoft fused desktop icons and widgets to get a "live tile". Compared to widgets, live tiles display a larger area of information and more compact typography. However, the simple big block design and too tight information arrangement make people like it, people who don't like it are daunting, and comments are polarized.
However, as Windows phone's global smartphone market share disappears, the "alternative" development direction of small components has also come to an abrupt end.
What revitalizes today's widgets is the other two manufacturers, Apple and Vivo.
Reinvent the experience and rejuvenate the widgets for a second spring
2020 is a critical year for the development of desktop widgets. This year, Apple added a "widget" function in the new system iOS 14, making it a second spring and once again becoming the focus of public attention. Vivo refactored widgets in its new system OriginOS, taking the functional experience of widgets to a whole new level.
Some people have made an analogy between widgets and Windows shortcuts, but this is not the case in Apple's view. Apple sees widgets as not another shortcut to an app, but rather a presentation of information that quickly provides an expression of app data that shows what certain users care about.
In the vast majority of manufacturers' systems, widgets assume the functions, as Apple said.
The core role of the widget is that it allows us to process information more efficiently. Before there is no widget (taking Taobao APP as an example), we need to find and open the Taobao APP to see the express delivery, after reading the opening screen advertisement, then click "I", then click "To Be Received", and finally click "Logistics Details"; and after having the widget, we only need to add the Taobao display express information widget to the appropriate location on the desktop, and then wait for it to automatically update the express delivery information. 99% of the excess action is eliminated.
There is no doubt that in today's efficient world of everything, iOS beautifully designed and rich widgets have become the favorite of many people. However, if the development of small components this year has reached the fifth level, then Apple has only reached the fourth level.
Compared with the efficient display information of iOS widgets, Vivo's OriginOS has taken a step forward on this basis and achieved "zero-level operation". In OriginOS, widgets are called "atomic components". The name is both for differentiation and uniqueness. That is to say, the core function of the iOS widget is to allow users to get information without entering the APP, and OriginOS goes a step further, allowing users to do some core operations on the desktop without entering the APP. "No need for superfluous operations", this is the meaning of the atom.
We can divide widgets into four types of functions: widgets that display key data, such as weather and time; aggregate summary widgets, such as news and emails; and widgets that need to be quick and direct to a certain function, such as listening to music and taking notes. Hybrid widgets combine two or more of the above to form a powerful matrix of widgets.
The difference between iOS and OriginOS in terms of widgets is that the widgets that need to trigger the operation class, such as setting an alarm clock, iOS needs to click into the clock APP, and OriginOS directly clicks the "+" of the widget on the main screen to complete it.
In the past, the advantage of iOS was that it had a large number of widgets and a wide variety of types. However, after a year of polishing, vivo in the recent launch of a new operating system version of OriginOS Ocean, atomic components have been greatly enriched, including Weibo, Alipay, Youku, Baidu Map and other apps we use the most frequently have corresponding atomic components, it can be said that basically cover the applications we need to use in daily life, for example, we can use Baidu taxi on the main screen of OriginOS Ocean, use Tongcheng to query tickets, Use Sina News to track major events...
OriginOS Ocean differs from iOS in that the shape and size of the widget. Although both specify the size specifications and content elements of the desktop widget, and adopt a uniform design style, the two are quite different in the way they are organized. The widget of iOS can only passively select the specification size specified by the manufacturer. However, due to OriginOS Ocean's unique "Huarong Grid" design, users can customize the same atomic component in four sizes to form a unique personalized desktop. OriginOS Ocean maintains the beauty of order through a unified design style, and the playability is stronger than that of iOS.
In addition, OriginOS Ocean's newly upgraded capsule notification function allows information to appear in the status bar in the shape of a capsule to achieve the effect of passing key information to users in a timely and efficient manner. This innovative way of presenting information is undoubtedly similar to that of small components.
One-click access to the desired function
Today's small components, drew Bamford pointed out the three major problems have been completely solved. So, how can widgets, a feature that has been developed for more than three decades, be advanced? The author believes that the "no-level operation" explored by OriginOS Ocean will become the mainstream development direction in the future.
Essentially, "zero-level operation" allows you to "go directly to the desired function with one click". In fact, not only atomic components, OriginOS Ocean has achieved "zero-level operation" in many ways. For example, on the lock screen interface, through the way of super card package, combined with the small window mode, users can pay, listen to songs, query flight information and other operations without unlocking the desktop.
Looking back at the entire development history of widgets, whether it is helping to achieve multitasking at the beginning of its birth, or OriginOS Ocean can perform various operations on the home screen through widgets, it is not difficult to find that the core mission of widgets is actually to help users process information more efficiently.
OriginOS Ocean does this better than other operating systems.