A widget is a program with a simple function on a computer, mobile device, or website. The pre-installed weather widget, news apps, and stack widgets that most iPhones and Android phones on their home screens are examples of widgets you probably use every day. If you’ve ever booked an appointment from a calendar connected to a website, that’s a widget.
The word widget predates computers and smartphones. The first known use was in 1924 in the way you might use “contraption” of “thingamajig.” Etymologists believe it to be a variation on the word gadget. Widget was first used to describe a computing application in the 1990s.
Available widgets are different for iPhone, Mac, iPad, Android phones, and websites. Here are some widget examples:
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Apple |
Find My Smart Stack Facetime Widgetsmith Screen Time |
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Android |
Samsung Notes TickTick Month Sectograph Google News |
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Website |
Calendar Countdown Map Video Contact Form |
Widgets come in different sizes while regular app icons are always the same size. Widgets are often pre-installed on the device’s home screen, but others can be added from an app store or website builder. Widgets also run on top of other apps and appear in a smartphone’s lock screen. There are apps that can run on top of other apps to display notifications, but it’s not the default for apps the way it is for widgets.
Well, sort of. Widgets and Plugins both extend the function of their host program, but there are some notable differences.
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Plugins |
Widgets |
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Downloadable piece of software |
Drag and drop content |
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Add functionality to a site |
Add a block of content to the front end |
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Site visitors don’t interact with them |
Site visitors do interact with them |
Add widgets for a variety of purposes to customize your website, grow your social media presence, and make the most of their time on your site. Here are the available widgets from our website builder and what they do:
Show site visitors the address of your business, the location of an event, where to find parking, and more with the map widget.
Insert an image anywhere on your site. The widget supports PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF, SVG, SVG+XML, ICO, X-ICON, and WEBP files. Each site can contain up to 15,000 images.
Every website needs buttons. They can take visitors to another page, open up a pop-up, or lead them to take any action you want them to.
The list widget makes it easier to format lists of content on your website.
The spacer widget makes it easier to add an empty area between blocks of content to create a more visually appealing website.
Organize your website by allowing visitors to click between tabs instead of scrolling through text. Each tab should include a label, title, description, image, and button.
Display text data in a table layout by either copying and pasting an existing table, using the editor, or uploading a CSV. The table can include up to 30 rows and columns.
The accordion widget allows visitors to collapse and expand content depending on what they’re interested in. It’s especially useful for FAQs, product and service details, and upcoming events.
Communicate with clients via Zoom video conferencing. You must have a Zoom account and your website must have an SSL certificate to use the Zoom widget.
Embed custom code into your website to extend your site’s functionality. This could mean adding your own widgets and plugins. Only add code from trusted sources and if you know exactly what it does and how to troubleshoot it.
Display YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion videos on your website or upload your own videos.
Place a copyright disclaimer with the current year on your website. The widget automatically updates to the current year to let visitors know that the site is up to date.
Add a real-time countdown to create a sense of urgency to take action or build excitement about your upcoming event.
Enable visitors to easily get in touch with site owners using WhatsApp. In order to use the widget, make sure the phone number you add is associated with a WhatsApp account.
Choose from over 1,000 ready-made icons or upload your own with an SVG file.
Make it easy for blog readers to navigate to your other posts by clicking All Posts, Recent Posts, or Search Posts.
Add designs to your website to highlight important information.
Embed audio files from SoundCloud or Mixcloud to your website. Upload your own file or copy and paste the link to an existing public file.
Add H1 to H6 titles to your website.
Easily add multiple images to your website.
Add multiple product galleries for your store on the same page. The widget can display up to 100 products or categories. For the product gallery widget to work properly, you have to include the Main Store Widget somewhere on your site.
Easily display upcoming events, bookings, and more.
Display all of your locations as a list or a map so customers can find the one that is closest to them.
Group photos together in a row or column instead of using multiple image widgets and cluttering the space.
Make it easy for visitors to share your content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and email. This is not connected to your own social media accounts, that’s the social icons’ job.
Show comparisons side by side without having to do any formatting work.
Add vector quality animations to your site.
Add images with wrapped text so when you move the image, the text will move with it.
Add widgets, customize widgets, and delete them easily from the user-friendly interface.
There are two ways to add widgets to your Sav website: dragging and dropping from the widgets panel and adding them from the context menu.
To edit and remove widgets, right click on it and select one of the options from the menu.
From the Edit Design menu, you can choose the
You can customize existing image widgets on your site using the mobile site editor. To get started, tap on the image and tap edit. From there, you can
The mobile editor allows you to make similar changes to the Image Slider and Photo Gallery widgets. After you tap edit, you have the options to
Here at Sav we’re all about empowering small business owners to succeed online. That’s why we include the features you need at a price you can afford on an interface that’s simple and easy to navigate. Start building with us today to see how!