App widgets can be configurable. For example, a clock widget can allow users to configure which time zone to display.
If you’d like users to be able to configure your widget’s settings, create a
widget configuration Activity
. This
activity will be automatically launched by the app widget host either when the
widget is created or later, depending on the configuration
options you specify.
Declare the configuration activity
Make sure to declare the configuration activity as a normal activity in the
Android manifest file. It will be launched by the app widget host with the
ACTION_APPWIDGET_CONFIGURE
action, so the activity needs to accept this Intent. For example:
<activity android:name=".ExampleAppWidgetConfigurationActivity">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.appwidget.action.APPWIDGET_CONFIGURE"/>
</intent-filter>
</activity>
Also, the activity must be declared in the AppWidgetProviderInfo
XML file,
with the android:configure
attribute (see Declare the AppWidgetProviderInfo
XML). Here’s an example of how to declare
the configuration activity:
<appwidget-provider xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
...
android:configure="com.example.android.ExampleAppWidgetConfigurationActivity"
... >
</appwidget-provider>
The activity is declared with a fully-qualified namespace, because the launcher will reference it from outside your package scope.
That's all you need to get started with a configuration activity. Now you’ll implement the actual activity.
Implement the configuration activity
There are two important points to remember when you implement the activity:
- The app widget host calls the configuration activity and the configuration
activity should always return a result. The result should include the App Widget
ID passed by the Intent that launched the activity (saved in the Intent extras
as
EXTRA_APPWIDGET_ID
). - The system does not send the
ACTION_APPWIDGET_UPDATE
broadcast when a configuration activity is launched, which means that it does not call theonUpdate()
method when the widget is created. It is the responsibility of the configuration activity to request an update from theAppWidgetManager
when creating the widget for the first time. However,onUpdate()
will be called for subsequent updates—it is only skipped the first time.
See the code snippets in the following section for an example of how to return a result from the configuration and update the widget.
Update the widget from the configuration activity
When a widget uses a configuration activity, it is the responsibility of
the activity to update the widget when configuration is complete. You can do
so by requesting an update directly from the
AppWidgetManager
.
Here's a summary of the procedure to properly update the widget and close the configuration activity:
Set the activity result to
RESULT_CANCELED
.This way, if the user backs out of the activity before reaching the end, the system notifies the app widget host that the configuration was canceled and the host shouldn’t add the widget:
Kotlin
setResult(Activity.RESULT_CANCELED)
Java
setResult(Activity.RESULT_CANCELED);
Get the App Widget ID from the Intent that launched the activity:
Kotlin
val appWidgetId = intent?.extras?.getInt( AppWidgetManager.EXTRA_APPWIDGET_ID, AppWidgetManager.INVALID_APPWIDGET_ID ) ?: AppWidgetManager.INVALID_APPWIDGET_ID
Java
Intent intent = getIntent(); Bundle extras = intent.getExtras(); int appWidgetId = AppWidgetManager.INVALID_APPWIDGET_ID; if (extras != null) { appWidgetId = extras.getInt( AppWidgetManager.EXTRA_APPWIDGET_ID, AppWidgetManager.INVALID_APPWIDGET_ID); }
Configure the widget according to the user’s preferences.
When the configuration is complete, get an instance of the
AppWidgetManager
by callinggetInstance(Context)
:Kotlin
val appWidgetManager = AppWidgetManager.getInstance(context)
Java
AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager = AppWidgetManager.getInstance(context);
Update the widget with a
RemoteViews
layout by callingupdateAppWidget(int,RemoteViews)
:Kotlin
val views = RemoteViews(context.packageName, R.layout.example_appwidget) appWidgetManager.updateAppWidget(appWidgetId, views)
Java
RemoteViews views = new RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(), R.layout.example_appwidget); appWidgetManager.updateAppWidget(appWidgetId, views);
Finally, create the return Intent, set it with the activity result, and finish the activity:
Kotlin
val resultValue = Intent().putExtra(AppWidgetManager.EXTRA_APPWIDGET_ID, appWidgetId) setResult(Activity.RESULT_OK, resultValue) finish()
Java
Intent resultValue = new Intent().putExtra(AppWidgetManager.EXTRA_APPWIDGET_ID, appWidgetId); setResult(RESULT_OK, resultValue); finish();
See the ListWidgetConfigureActivity.kt
sample class on GitHub for an example.
Widget configuration options
By default, the app widget host only launches the configuration activity once, immediately after the user adds the widget to their home screen. However, you can specify options that let you enable users to reconfigure existing widgets or skip initial widget configuration by providing a default widget configuration.
Enable users to reconfigure placed widgets
To enable users to reconfigure existing widgets, specify the reconfigurable
flag in the widgetFeatures
attribute of appwidget-provider
(see Declare the AppWidgetProviderInfo
XML for more information). For example:
<appwidget-provider
android:configure="com.myapp.ExampleAppWidgetConfigurationActivity"
android:widgetFeatures="reconfigurable">
</appwidget-provider>
Users will then be able to reconfigure their widget by long-pressing the widget and tapping the Reconfigure button, which is labeled 1 in figure 1.

Use the widget's default configuration
You can provide a more seamless widget experience by allowing users to skip the
initial configuration step. To do this, specify both the
configuration_optional
and reconfigurable
flags in the widgetFeatures
field. This bypasses
launching the configuration activity after a user adds the widget. (As mentioned
previously, the user can still reconfigure the widget
afterwards.) For example, a clock widget could bypass the initial configuration
and show the device time zone by default.
Here is an example of how to mark your configuration activity as reconfigurable and optional:
<appwidget-provider
android:configure="com.myapp.ExampleAppWidgetConfigurationActivity"
android:widgetFeatures="reconfigurable|configuration_optional">
</appwidget-provider>
Allow users to pin a widget
On devices running Android 8.0 (API level 26) and higher, launchers that allow users to create pinned shortcuts also allow them to pin widgets onto their home screen. Similar to pinned shortcuts, these pinned widgets give users access to specific tasks in your app and can be added to the home screen directly from the app. For example, when a user adds a new city in a weather app, you could prompt the user to add a weather widget for that city to their home screen.
In your app, you can create a request for the system to pin a widget onto a supported launcher by completing the following steps:
Make sure you’ve declared a widget in your app’s manifest file.
Call the
requestPinAppWidget()
method, as shown in the following code snippet:
Kotlin
val appWidgetManager = AppWidgetManager.getInstance(context) val myProvider = ComponentName(context, ExampleAppWidgetProvider::class.java) if (appWidgetManager.isRequestPinAppWidgetSupported()) { // Create the PendingIntent object only if your app needs to be notified // that the user allowed the widget to be pinned. Note that, if the pinning // operation fails, your app isn't notified. This callback receives the ID // of the newly-pinned widget (EXTRA_APPWIDGET_ID). val successCallback = PendingIntent.getBroadcast( /* context = */ context, /* requestCode = */ 0, /* intent = */ Intent(...), /* flags = */ PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT) appWidgetManager.requestPinAppWidget(myProvider, null, successCallback) }
Java
AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager = AppWidgetManager.getInstance(context); ComponentName myProvider = new ComponentName(context, ExampleAppWidgetProvider.class); if (appWidgetManager.isRequestPinAppWidgetSupported()) { // Create the PendingIntent object only if your app needs to be notified // that the user allowed the widget to be pinned. Note that, if the pinning // operation fails, your app isn't notified. This callback receives the ID // of the newly-pinned widget (EXTRA_APPWIDGET_ID). PendingIntent successCallback = PendingIntent.getBroadcast( /* context = */ context, /* requestCode = */ 0, /* intent = */ new Intent(...), /* flags = */ PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT); appWidgetManager.requestPinAppWidget(myProvider, null, successCallback); }