Android home screen widget with .NET MAUI

Question

Does new .NET MAUI with .NET 7 supports building of Android (home screen) widget application?

Can't find any reference to widgets or code example (except this https://marcofolio.net/app-widget-xamarin-android/ looks like not MAUI, but old Xamarin app).

Answer 1

Hello,

After investigation and testing, you could use Android widgets in MAUI.

Please refer to the following steps.

Step 1. Open the Platforms/Android/Resources folder in the MAUI project and create layout, xml and drawable folders in it.

Step 2. The interface for creating widgets under the layout folder.

Widget.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
      xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:id="@+id/widgetBackground"
      android:orientation="vertical">
      <TextView
            android:id="@+id/widgetMedium"
                  android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                  android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                  android:text="test" />
      <TextView
            android:id="@+id/widgetSmall"
                  android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                  android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                  android:text="test1" />
</LinearLayout>

Step 3. Add a picture as a preview image of the widget under the drawable folder. In the test, I added a file called "test.png".

Step 4. Create appwidget-provider-metadata in the xml folder. In the test, I added a file called "appwidgetprovider.xml".

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<appwidget-provider xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:minWidth="288dip"
    android:minHeight="72dip"
    android:resizeMode="horizontal"
    android:minResizeWidth="144dip"
    android:updatePeriodMillis="1000"
    android:initialLayout="@layout/Widget"
    android:previewImage="@drawable/test" />

Step 5. Create the AppWidgetProvider class in the Android folder. In the test, I added a file called "appwidgetprovider.xml".

// Add Exported = true for your app to run as expected in Android 12 and above.
 [BroadcastReceiver(Label = "HellApp Widget" , Exported = true)]
    [IntentFilter(new string[] { "android.appwidget.action.APPWIDGET_UPDATE" })]
    [MetaData("android.appwidget.provider", Resource = "@xml/appwidgetprovider")]
    [Service(Exported = true)]
    public class AppWidget : AppWidgetProvider
    {
        public override void OnUpdate(Context context, AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager, int[] appWidgetIds)
        {
            var me = new ComponentName(context, Java.Lang.Class.FromType(typeof(AppWidget)).Name);
            appWidgetManager.UpdateAppWidget(me, BuildRemoteViews(context, appWidgetIds));
        }

        private RemoteViews BuildRemoteViews(Context context, int[] appWidgetIds)
        {
            var widgetView = new RemoteViews(context.PackageName, Resource.Layout.Widget);

            SetTextViewText(widgetView);

            return widgetView;
        }
        private void SetTextViewText(RemoteViews widgetView)
        {
            widgetView.SetTextViewText(Resource.Id.widgetMedium, "HelloAppWidget");
            widgetView.SetTextViewText(Resource.Id.widgetSmall,
                string.Format("Last update: {0:H:mm:ss}", DateTime.Now));
        }

        public override void OnReceive(Context context, Intent intent) { }
       
    }

After that, you can deploy the program to your device and find the widget by long pressing the app icon.

Best Regards,

Alec Liu.

---

If the answer is the right solution, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.