Home screen widgets: agenda and month

The best reminder is one you see without opening anything. Pingr offers two widgets for the Android home screen so your day is there every time you unlock the phone. This guide covers how to add them, what each shows, what a tap does and the few reasons a widget can look empty.

Add a widget

1. Touch and hold an empty spot on your home screen.
2. Tap Widgets.
3. Find Pingr, then pick Pingr agenda or Pingr month.
4. Drag it where you want it. Touch and hold it again to resize.

The steps are also in the app: open More, then Widgets. That screen shows an illustration of each widget, labelled as an illustration, because your own widget shows your own items. Phones differ in menu wording, but the pattern is the same.

The Agenda widget

The Agenda widget groups your items under Overdue, Today and Upcoming, using the same grouping as the Home tab and your own time zone. Upcoming covers the next seven days. To keep the widget fast it shows up to 24 rows, and a line reads "+3 more in Pingr" (with the real number) when some are left out. Titles are shortened to fit.

• Reminders and tasks have a check circle. Tap it to complete the item from the widget. For a repeating item, it completes that occurrence.
• Events have no check circle, because an event is not something you tick off.
• Tap a row to open that item in the app.
• Tap the add button to open the Add screen in the app.

When nothing is due, the widget says "Nothing for today." and "Tap + to add something."

The Month widget

The Month widget shows one month at a glance, with a dot on the days that have something. It has buttons for the previous month and the next month, and one to go back to this month. It follows the week start day and the 12 or 24 hour clock you chose in Settings, then Calendar. Tapping a day opens the Calendar tab.

Why a widget looks empty

Widgets show the data of the account you are signed in with. Sign out and they empty, and switch accounts and they follow. If your trial or subscription has ended, the widget shows a prompt to start your free trial instead of your items. If the widget shows "Sign in to Pingr", open the app once and sign in. The Widgets screen also has a Refresh widgets button for the rare case when the data on the home screen lags behind the app.

Reading a row and a day

Each Agenda row shows the title and a short time line such as "Today 9:00", "All day" or "Sat 24 Oct 14:30", written in your time zone and your clock style. A section with nothing in it is simply left out. In the Month widget, today is highlighted with the accent colour, days from the neighbouring months are drawn fainter, and a small dot marks every day that has an item.

Light, dark and size

Both widgets come in a light and a dark look and follow your phone's theme. Touch and hold either widget to resize it. The Agenda widget builds up to 24 rows, and how many you can see depends on how tall you make it. Give the Month widget enough room that the grid of days is easy to tap. If you change the week start day or the clock in Settings, the widgets pick it up the next time they refresh.

A setup that works

Many people put the Agenda widget on the first home screen and the Month widget on the second. Add reminders from the add button on the Agenda widget while you are on the home screen, tick off a few in passing, and use the Month widget to spot a crowded week before you agree to something new. Pair this with alerts and quiet hours so the widget is a calm overview and the notifications are the interruption.

Where Pingr is not the best fit

The widgets are for Android only, and they are two fixed layouts rather than a builder. You cannot change what the Agenda widget groups or filter it by list. A widget draws a bitmap per row, which is why the row count is capped. And because Pingr is a paid app, the widgets show a prompt rather than your data when no trial or subscription is active.

To put your day on your home screen, get the app. Related: stop missing reminders.