Upcoming Chromebook ‘glanceable’ widgets to get calendar support

Last week it was discovered that Chromebooks are likely to get basic widget support via ‘glanceable’ tiles added to the ChormeOS desktop in the future. The initial commits showcased only a clock and weather widget, leaving me to only hope that at least the addition of a calendar widget was in the works. Today, I found proof of that exact thing, and I’m beyond excited for it!

To be honest, the most-used widgets on my phone are by far my clock, my weather, and my calendar widgets. I know there are tons of Android widgets out there that people use on a regular basis, but these three are likely in everyone’s top 10 at least. With the new ChromeOS widgets coming with the code name ‘Glanceables’, it makes sense that these more-simple, straightforward options are going to be present right out of the gate.

From the commit above, we can clearly make out the fact that the calendar widget will likely be a familiar look and feel to start out. Whether the ‘existing calendar model’ is referring to the Google calendar aesthetic or the ChromeOS calendar in the system tray is unclear at this point, but either one would be fine with me. In the end, if I can glance at my desktop to quickly see the time, weather and my agenda for the day, I’ll be really happy about it.

For what it’s worth, there’s another new commit that gives this new calendar section a name: ‘Up Next’. This could be a title on the widget itself or just a name for this particular section of the ‘Glanceables’ in the settings menu. The naming makes me think about the Pixel Watch, however, and Google’s apparent attention being given to the idea of glanceable information on your wrist. Could the two end up being tied together down the road?

Perhaps that is the case as Google continues to let more and more of their design languages and UI elements blend together across their hardware. I’m all for it and if the glanceable widgets on Android, Wear OS, and ChromeOS end up having the exact same look, feel and function, I think that is a win all around. Time will tell, but it feels like the ‘Glanceables’ section of ChromeOS is on the fast track at this point, so hopefully we’ll see something materialize in the Canary or Developer Channels soon. Stay tuned.