Microsoft made major announcements related to the Widget panel in the last couple of weeks. And the software giant seems to have many more exciting announcements for the future about Widgets on Windows 11. One of the noteworthy improvements that Microsoft is currently testing is a small banner at the top of the Widget panel.
As spotted by @PhantomOfEarth, the new banner will notify you when a new widget becomes available. Of course, the banner will not tell you about every app widget. You will get notified only when the widget for any of your installed apps becomes available.
As a reminder, widget support may or may not be pushed through an app update. But most of the time, it will come through an app update. In other words, do not expect the banner notification to appear at the top of the Widget panel if you have not updated your apps.
It looks like Microsoft is currently testing the feature with Windows 11 Insiders. Considering the fact that it is a small improvement, it should become available to the general public in the upcoming Web Experience Pack.
The Widgets panel will show a small banner when a new widget becomes available for an app (through a Store update while it's running, for example) pic.twitter.com/aB1bpyR2xf
— PhantomOcean3?? (@PhantomOfEarth) January 30, 2023
Meanwhile, Microsoft has already started rolling out a full-screen Widget board for stable Windows 11 users through Web Experience Pack. It also added the Phone Link widget to Windows 11. And thanks to support for third-party apps, Meta recently added the Messenger widget to the operating system. However, Phone Link and Messenger widgets are currently available for Windows 11 Insiders. We hope Microsoft will continue to add improvements to the Widget panel in the future.
Do you use widgets on your Windows 11 PC? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.