Google’s At a Glance widget for Pixel phones delivers plenty of information succinctly on the lock screen and launcher, chipping in to make the phones some of thebest Android devicesavailable today. The widget also receives frequent updates, adding useful capabilities likeair quality alerts, weather notices, andcross-device timers. It’s only poised to get better, as Google is working on two neat location proximity features to aid regular commuters and frequent flyers.
At a Glance currently shows travel information like flight numbers scraped from Gmail, but an APK teardown by9to5Googleindicates that the latest beta version of the Google app (v14.11) is preparing to add more functionality. For instance, there’s a new “Near Airport” string that lets you “See Arrivals Schedule,” potentially providing this info when you’re approaching the airport.
The Near Airport feature could help make the drive-through-or-parking decision easier if you know when the flight is arriving. However, at present, it’s not clear where the data will come from —At a Glance could redirect you to the airport arrivals webpage or pull from a third-party service to populate the information directly into the widget.
Similarly, a “Near Transit Station” string revealed in the APK teardown may point to a feature that lets you “See Arrival and Departure Times” in the widget on the home screen and lock screen. This could use your location information to determine if you’re near a bus station or train station, and 9to5Google believes tapping the widget could open up the Transit tab for your location in Google Maps.
Since there are usually multiple buses and trains serving the same route, we still aren’t sure how the tiny space in the widget will convey all the relevant information. But this is very early in the development process, so there’s plenty of time for the feature to evolve and all the kinks to be worked out. Meanwhile,Google is pulling the plug on trip summaries in Google Travel, so it’s out with the old and in with the new, apparently.
