You can now ‘stack’ widgets on your Android homescreen just like iOS 14

Android has long been the customisation king, whether you compare it with iOS or with the now defunct Windows phone. In fact, if you wanted to customize your iPhone, the best you could do until last year was change your wallpaper. With iOS 14, however, Apple added limited widget support, which actually has a cool ability to ‘stack’ over each other. This functionality saves space and doesn’t crowd your home screen.

While Android doesn’t support the ability to stack widgets on top of each other like iOS, there might just be a way to replicate the functionality with third-party Action Launcher, according to a report by Android Police. The latest beta release of Chris Lacy’s popular custom launcher adds support for “Widget stacks”which means that you can place them one on top of each other to take up less space.

On iOS, you can swipe to switch the widgets, and the gesture was designed by Apple in such a way that it wouldn’t clash with any other system related gestures. On Android however, the feature isn’t supported by default and as a result, Lacy had to make sure that it wouldn’t interfere with other gestures. Meanwhile, swiping on the left and right side of the stacked widgets switches between them. If you swipe up or down in the middle of the widget, you can scroll content in your widget like a list of emails or news articles, the report says.

Also read: Want to create custom widgets on iOS 14? Launcher 5 is here for you

Users who want to try the new stacking feature out will have to sign up for the beta version of the app, and then download it from the Google Play Store. You’ll need version 47.0-beta, Android Police says, but keep in mind if you’re on Android 10 and your phone isn’t properly updated, you won’t be able to use the new full-screen navigation gestures with a third party launcher.