Google Maps Lock Screen widgets in iOS 16 is changing how I road trip
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Steve Jobs may have invented the three-click rule. This line refers to how the late Apple CEO and co-founder prompted the original iPod team to ensure that a user was always three clicks away from playing a song.
I thought about this when I was creating a new lock screen for when I travel in the car, and how the platform’s news support for lock screen widgets has reduced the number of taps on my iPhone to launch an app or an action without going to the home screen.
I use both Apple Maps and Google Maps for different purposes – whether that’s to use Apple’s app to find certain landmarks when my wife and I are away for the weekend, or to use Google Maps to get from one destination to another. the other to go.
Still, the combination of Google Maps and iOS 16’s Lock Screen widgets has been most helpful to me when I’m driving somewhere, and I’m hoping for more by the time iOS 17 arrives.
When we’re about to leave for a car ride, I switch the lock screen on my iPhone to the above, and the Google Maps widget on the right allows me to pick the destination I’ve visited before, and turn on the weather widget. the left side gives me an idea of the weather for the next few hours while I’m on the road.
This also launched the second part of setting up my iPhone for driving. Since Spotify is built into Google Maps, it can also play a song if needed, but since we like to listen to a lot of podcasts on the go, I use Apple’s Shortcuts feature to automate a podcast playlist.
As soon as I turn on Do Not Disturb Driving, the automation starts playing my podcast playlist in Cloudy, picking up where we left off last. It’s incredibly easy to set up my iPhone for driving now, and before iOS 16, I spent most of my time setting up podcasts before hitting the road.
These Lock Screen widgets aren’t just for show – they can help reduce taps to or below the benchmark Steve Jobs set with the iPod over two decades ago. Combine that with Shortcut automation and it already becomes a time saver for me and certainly for many others.
When it comes to iOS 17, I would like to have more widgets on the lock screen – one above and three below the time is not enough, I want to put at least six.
For now, however, widgets and automations are a perfect combination for me while driving, both before and during, which is why I consider iOS 16 to be a great update for the iPhone.