The new Windows 11 third-party widgets will be available as companions to existing PWA or Win32 apps
But having third-party widgets on Windows 11 won’t be straightforward. Widgets will only be supported as companions to PWA (progressive web app) or Win32 apps. “We’re energized by the customer feedback on Widgets to date, people are enjoying the quick access to content most important to them in a way that is seamless without breaking their flow,” Microsoft’s EVP and Chief Product Officer, Panos Panay, said. “Beginning later this year you’ll be able to start building Widgets as companion experiences for your Win32 and PWA apps on Windows 11, powered by the Adaptive Cards platform.” As The Verge notes, the choice of widgets on Windows 11 is quite limited. Users can currently access widgets for To Do, Outlook, and a few others on the new operating system. Some widgets, including the news and weather feeds, are web-based. So it was only a matter of time before Microsoft enabled support for third-party widgets on Windows 11. Despite announcing the feature at Build 2022, there’s still a lot that we don’t know about third-party widgets. Microsoft couldn’t provide a specific timeline for the feature’s arrival. Widgets are currently located inside a dedicated panel on Windows 11, so users will welcome the fact that this is changing sometime year.
Windows 11 brings a slew of new features
There’s also a new platform-agnostic ‘Chat’ app, allowing users to get in touch with people via voice/video call or text. The best part is that the app allows users to text or make calls even if the other person is on an Android or iOS device. These are just some of the several visual and performance improvements introduced with Microsoft’s operating system.
