Microsoft will use the Windows 11 lock screen to recommend widgets
It took Microsoft a long time to embrace widgets, but the company is now doing so wholeheartedly. While smartphone and tablet users – and, indeed, Mac owners – have developed a relationship with widgets, the same cannot be said of Windows 11 users.
But this is something Microsoft wants to change. In a move that will almost certainly prove to be popular and controversial in equal measure, the company is going to the Windows 11 lock screen to recommend widgets you might be interested in.
The evolution of Windows 11 widgets has been a very slow one, and it is only recently that third-party widgets became a reality. Microsoft now faces something of a challenge. Firstly, it needs to convince those who were unimpressed with the first iteration of widgets that this is something worth revisiting. Secondly, it needs to promote the expanding library of widgets to people who are completely unaware of their existence.
And this is where the lock screen recommendation come into play. It is an idea that is clearly still a work in progress as it has not made its way to the main release version of Windows 11. Rather it is a feature currently hidden away in preview build of the operating system; but not hidden well enough to escape the eyes of PhantomOfEarth who made the discovery and shared it on X:
The upcoming addition is described in the post as a Discover Widget feature, and at the moment there is no indication of when Microsoft intends to roll it out to all Windows 11 users.
Just how this feature is received remains to be seen. Historically, Microsoft has had little success with any sort of recommendation system it has added to Windows 11. Users have tended to view such things with suspicion, regarding preview recommendations for switch web browsers (to Microsoft Edge, of course), or promoting apps, as being little more than advertisements.
But things could be different when it comes to widgets. These are little tools, small adornments that can be genuinely useful – and the truth of the matter is that a lot of people are simply unaware of them.
We will just have to wait to see just when widget recommendations hit the main release channel of Windows 11, and then wait longer still to access the reception. This could, however, be a rare time Microsoft uses a recommendation engine in a way that could enhance users’ computing experience. It will also help to transform the lock screen into something that can be useful, informative and beautiful.