Ask HN: Do you use widgets on Android?

Nope.

I perceive them to use up battery and memory and I don't want the unnecessary distraction. Whether they actually do use battery or not is another question.

I used to use a wifi/BT/GPS toggle widget but all that is now in the notification drawer there's no need.

I use one for weather, another one for calendar. But given than Google Now prompts your for both weather information and next meetings, I should probably get rid of them.

There are not a lot of information you need to have always up to date.

Nope. Had a battery stat widget which I removed, now I have this calendar and all-in-one widgets which I basically never open, they just stand there for looks. Don't know many folks that use them.

I so want to use them but I haven't found any good reason yet.

What I have used instead (but not much ) is the OneNote badge. It works kind of like Facebook "conversation bubbles", giving me a shortcut to OneNote from any app.

Just two - digital clock, for the day and date; and power control, because it lets me toggle wifi and GPS with a single press unlike the settings drawer that opens settings dialog and requires more clicks. Moto on Android KitKat.

Is it important that the widget looks nice?

Air Quality Index (almost everyone I know uses this, but I'm in a more polluted part of the world).

Some internal company ones giving quick KPI/dashboarding. I think this market is under-served by corporate apps in general. If a process is critical to an organisation no matter it's size, a widget can be a great tool for monitoring it.

When a real-time statistic is sufficiently important I prefer a widget to needing to load (or even develop) a dedicated app. I can then go through unified web-based (responsive) interface to take any action needed.

I like the idea of them but from my experience widgets have been lacking. Whether that be from not updating correctly/timely to just not working at all.

I cannot survive without the calendar widget.

My need is to have a glanceable schedule for the day - what is coming up, when and where; or how packed the day is or not. Calendar notifications don't work for me as I need information at the back of my mind. Having a widget displaying information without me seeking it out, helps my back of mind scheduler.

Now thinking about it, Widgets (atleast for my case) acts like an ambient device.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_device

I was just re-arranging my widgets last night! I use the bookmarks, google now, email, calendar & spotify widgets.

I used to use the Weather widget, but switched that with spotify and a smaller clock widget.

I have a calendar widget (Event Flow) and a task list, both are very useful.

I would like to have a step counter too, but haven't found one that have a nice ui.

I only use "Power Control" it allows me to toggle WiFi/Bluetooth/GPS/Synchronization

I have tried using other widgets but I found myself always opening the App instead.

They are hidden in an hard to discover menu, as a rule of thumb, it means that the casual user won't ever use them.

There is a niche of users that can't live without them though.