A good widget shows information without making us unlock the phone. The Pixel-specific roundup XDA ran last week made the same point a lot of Android home-screen tinkerers have been making since Material You landed: the built-in widget set is fine, but the home screen gets a lot more useful with a couple of installed widget apps.
Here are seven widget apps for Android that we keep on every test phone, covering customization, weather, calendar, planning, and home-screen automation. Mix and match — most home screens look best with two or three of these working together.
What to look for in an Android widget app
- Resizing that actually reflows the content. A widget that just stretches is not the same as one that adds detail at larger sizes.
- A free tier with the basic widget visible. Some widget apps put the widget itself behind a paywall, which is a no-go.
- Material You theming. The 2024–2025 dynamic colour rollout makes home screens look coherent only when widgets follow the wallpaper-based palette.
- Battery and background behaviour. A widget that wakes the phone every minute will be felt by lunchtime.
- A live preview. Customizable widgets without a real-time preview are an exercise in patience.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Free plan | Paid (USD) | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KWGT Kustom Widget Maker | Full DIY widget design | Yes | Pro $4.99 one-time | Build a widget from primitives |
| KLWP Live Wallpaper Maker | Companion live wallpaper editor | Yes | Pro $4.99 one-time | Animate the whole home screen |
| 1Weather | Weather + forecast widgets | Yes, ad-supported | Premium $1.99/mo or $9.99/yr | 16 widget styles |
| Calendar Widget (Candl Apps) | Month + agenda calendar widgets | Yes | Pro from $2.99 one-time | Clean Material widgets |
| Sectograph | Radial 24-hour day planner | Yes, ad-supported | Pro from $3.99 one-time | Unique time-circle visualization |
| Memorigi | To-do list with task widgets | Yes | Pro from $4.99/yr | Tasks visible on lock screen |
| Tasker | Automation-powered widgets | Paid up front | $3.49 one-time | Build widgets that run logic |
The 7 best widget apps for Android
1. KWGT Kustom Widget Maker — best for full customization
KWGT is the design tool for widgets that the rest of this list doesn’t replace. Start from a blank canvas or a community preset, drop in shapes, text, weather data, calendar items, music control, and battery info, then bind each element to a data source. The KWGT community has thousands of free presets ready to install if starting from scratch sounds like work, and the Pro unlock removes the watermark and the size limits for $4.99 one-time.
Where it falls short: Learning curve. KWGT is a small design program, not a “tap to install a widget” app. Battery-savings settings on some OEMs (Xiaomi, OnePlus, Samsung) can pause widget refreshes.
Pricing: Free with watermark and size limit. Pro $4.99 one-time.
Platforms: Android.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play · Samsung Galaxy Store
Bottom line: The first install for anyone who wants the home screen to look exactly like a screenshot they saved on Reddit.
2. KLWP Live Wallpaper Maker — best companion for KWGT setups
KLWP is KWGT’s sibling that runs the same design tool against the wallpaper layer. The same widget design can extend into an animated background, the same data bindings work, and a coherent KWGT + KLWP setup looks polished in a way that home screens with separate static widgets don’t. The community presets often ship both as a paired download.
Where it falls short: Animated wallpapers eat battery in a way that a static one doesn’t. KLWP also shares KWGT’s learning curve.
Pricing: Free with watermark. Pro $4.99 one-time.
Platforms: Android.
Download: Google Play
Bottom line: The pick when the home screen is supposed to be a designed surface, not a grid.
3. 1Weather — best weather widget
1Weather ships a long list of weather widget styles (16 at last count), from minimalist single-line forecasts to full hourly cards, all with Material You theming. The forecast data is competitive with the platform default, the radar view is usable, and the widget refresh respects battery. The pro tier removes the ads inside the app; the widget itself stays free.
Where it falls short: The app interface is busy. The widget catalogue is the reason to install, not the in-app experience.
Pricing: Free with ads. Premium $1.99/month or $9.99/year removes ads.
Platforms: Android, iOS.
Download: Google Play · App Store
Bottom line: The default weather widget when the stock one is too plain or too sponsored.
4. Calendar Widget by Candl Apps — best calendar widget
Calendar Widget (sometimes called “Calendar Widget: Month + Agenda”) is the calendar widget that has hit the right balance between density and readability. Multiple sizes (1x1 through 5x5), both month-grid and agenda-list layouts, theming that follows Material You, and full support for Google Calendar plus any local CalDAV calendars. The Pro unlock adds the rarer layouts and removes the in-app ads.
Where it falls short: The standalone app is barely an app; it’s a widget configuration screen.
Pricing: Free with ads. Pro from $2.99 one-time.
Platforms: Android.
Download: Google Play
Bottom line: The pick when Google Calendar’s default widget feels too sparse and Outlook’s is too busy.
5. Sectograph — best for time-blocking the day
Sectograph turns the day into a clock face with events plotted as pie slices around 24 hours. It’s a different way to read a schedule (some people love it, some don’t), and the visualization works particularly well as a smaller home-screen widget where a list calendar would be cramped. The Pro unlock adds custom colours and removes the small ads in the app.
Where it falls short: Personal preference. Some users find the radial format harder to read than a list.
Pricing: Free with ads. Pro from $3.99 one-time.
Platforms: Android, Wear OS.
Download: Google Play
Bottom line: The pick when “what’s coming up next” deserves more visual weight than the date.
6. Memorigi — best task widget
Memorigi is the to-do app whose home-screen widgets are the reason to use it. Multiple widget sizes for upcoming tasks, today’s list, or specific lists; Material You theming; subtask support; and good Google Tasks sync. The free tier covers everything most single-user setups need, and the Pro tier adds collaboration and advanced repeating tasks.
Where it falls short: Less polished than Todoist or TickTick as a pure tasks app. The widget is the differentiator, not the in-app experience.
Pricing: Free with core widgets. Pro from $4.99/year unlocks advanced repeats, attachments, and themes.
Platforms: Android, Wear OS.
Download: Google Play
Bottom line: The right pick when seeing today’s tasks on the home screen is the reason to have a tasks app.
7. Tasker — best for widgets that do something
Tasker is the automation app whose widgets execute logic rather than just display information. Build a widget that toggles Wi-Fi, runs a routine when arriving home, posts to a webhook, or triggers a specific Spotify playlist depending on the time of day. The widget framework inside Tasker (Tasker Widgets) is more than a button; it can ingest variables and render conditionally.
Where it falls short: Tasker is a beast to learn. The reward is real but the on-ramp is long.
Pricing: $3.49 one-time on the Play Store. Tasker Widgets in-app purchases extend the widget UI library.
Platforms: Android.
Download: Google Play
Bottom line: The pick when the home screen should be a control panel, not just a billboard.
How to choose
- For full DIY customization: KWGT (and KLWP if the wallpaper is in scope).
- For weather at a glance: 1Weather.
- For calendar at a glance: Calendar Widget by Candl Apps, or Sectograph for a different format.
- For tasks at a glance: Memorigi.
- For widgets that perform actions: Tasker.
- Skip a third-party widget app entirely if the stock Pixel or Samsung widgets cover the use case. The “right” widget setup is the smallest one that surfaces what we actually look at.
FAQ
What is the best free Android widget app? KWGT for full DIY designs (Pro is optional), 1Weather for weather, and Memorigi for tasks all have meaningful free tiers.
How do I get widgets like in the screenshots I see online? Most of those are KWGT presets. Browse r/kustom and the KWGT in-app store, install a preset, then place it via long-press on the home screen.
Do widgets drain the battery? The well-built ones don’t. Refresh frequency is the dial: a weather widget that polls every 15 minutes is fine; a system-monitor widget that polls every second will be felt.
Why do my widgets disappear after a reboot on Xiaomi or OnePlus? Aggressive battery savers. Pin KWGT (and the other widget apps) under autostart and lock them as recent apps, and grant battery exception under settings.
Can I use iOS widgets like Widgetsmith on Android? No, but KWGT covers the same use case and has more design freedom. The iOS-style presets are plentiful in the KWGT community.
Which launcher works best with custom widgets? Nova, Lawnchair, and Niagara all handle third-party widgets well. The stock Pixel launcher and Samsung One UI launcher also accept any home-screen widget.
