Google Contacts widget gains two welcome new features

Google Contacts enriches its widget with the possibility of displaying message notifications and shared location.

Google Contacts simplifies reading and sending messages to your favorite contacts by adding, among other things, notifications and location sharing to its Android widget.

A more practical widget for Google Contacts

By going to the “What’s new” section of the Google Contacts 4.34 application on the Play Store, you will see three changes: “show notifications from certain apps and respond to them in the Contacts widget”, “display locations shared from Google Maps in the Contacts widget” and “set a time to receive reminders for important dates”.

To see what it looks like, long-press on an empty area of your Android smartphone’s desktop and choose the Google Contacts “Individual Contact” widget. Once selected, you need to grant permission to the app to display messages in your widget.

Read: Google Contacts once again simplifies its interface

After choosing the contact in question, you will be able to receive a notification presenting their next message (or an excerpt if it is too long). If you tap on the message in question, the Google Messages app opens so you can reply. This is very practical if you often communicate with the same contact via SMS / RCS.

The second new feature concerns the display of shared positions from Google Maps. A small “Maps” icon is then displayed on the contact photo in your widget. By clicking on it, you can see on the profile its current location (neighborhood or city).

Finally, the third and final new feature of the day is to be found directly on a contact page. By clicking on the “Reminders” tab located in the “Contact Settings” section, you can set a new reminder. So far, nothing new. The change here is to be found on the notifications that you will receive in addition to the reminders in the application. Indeed, you can now choose at the bottom of the page the exact time at which you receive the notifications.