The company had announced to update six lock screen widgets on iOS 16 launch day, out of which, four widgets were updated recently.
The new widgets come for the tech giant’s core products such as Google, Google Chrome, Google Search, Google News, Google Drive, etc. This feature is only available for iPhone on iOS 14 and up and iPadOS 14 and up. For iPads, the Google app widget is only available in landscape mode.
The recent Google Maps‘ 6.40 update adds two iOS 16 Lock Screen widgets – Frequent Trips and Search.
The feature ‘Frequent Trips’ provides directions and expected time of arrival for trips that are taken frequently. Whereas, the ‘Search’ option helps to find restaurants, gas stations, and more. One of the highlights of this update is that it provides an important shortcut: Nearby coffee shops.
The updated Search adds 4 new widgets to iOS 16 – Search, Voice Search, Lens and Lens Shortcuts, according to reports. ‘Search’ gives access to Google Search from the Lock Screen, whereas, with the “Voice Search” you can ask a question, hum a song, or search for content with the voice. ‘Lens’ helps to search with the camera or any image. Meanwhile, ‘Lens Shortcuts’ provide easy access to any lens.
Apart from this, there’s a Gmail widget that gives you a glimpse of what’s in store for your workday and a Google Lens shortcut so you can quickly find answers to your questions. Recently, the company announced to roll out Passkey support to both Android and Chrome for better safety and protection from threats online.
Passkeys are a safer alternative to passwords and other phishable forms of authentication. They cannot be reused and do not leak in server breaches. They provide a strong protection to users against phishing attacks on the Internet. Using a passkey is similar to using a saved password, where they simply confirm with their existing device screen lock such as their fingerprint or face scan.
