native_home_widgets

pub version license stars issues

The most complete Flutter plugin for Home Screen Widgets. Create, configure, and manage home screen widgets entirely from Flutter — no native code required.

Source code: github.com/dilmer23/native_home_widgets

Features

  • Multiple Widget Sizes — Small, Medium, Large
  • Rich Content — Progress bars, Battery status, Clock, Weather, Todo lists
  • Interactive Widgets — Click actions, deep links, open specific screens
  • Theming — Dark mode, Light mode, Material You (Android 12+)
  • Accessibility — Semantic labels, hints, RTL support
  • Cross-Platform — Android (Jetpack Glance) + iOS (WidgetKit + SwiftUI)
  • Type-Safe — Full Dart models with serialization
  • Event Streams — React to widget clicks and lifecycle events

Platform Support

Platform Min Version Framework
Android API 21 (6.0+) Jetpack Glance, AppWidgetManager
iOS 16.0+ WidgetKit, SwiftUI, AppIntents

Installation

dependencies:
  native_home_widgets: ^0.5.0

Quick Start

import 'package:native_home_widgets/native_home_widgets.dart';

final widgets = NativeHomeWidgets();

// Save data to be displayed in the widget
await widgets.saveData(
  key: 'title',
  value: 'Hello',
  widgetId: 'my_widget',
);

await widgets.saveData(
  key: 'value',
  value: '42',
  widgetId: 'my_widget',
);

// Trigger widget update
await widgets.update(widgetId: 'my_widget');

API Reference

Data Operations

// Save a value (persisted to DataStore on Android, UserDefaults on iOS)
await widgets.saveData(key: 'key', value: 'value', widgetId: 'id');

// Read a value with optional default
final value = await widgets.getData<String>(
  key: 'key',
  widgetId: 'id',
  defaultValue: 'fallback',
);

// Remove a specific value
await widgets.removeData(key: 'key', widgetId: 'id');

// Clear all data for a widget
await widgets.clearData(widgetId: 'id');

Widget Lifecycle

// Update a specific widget by ID
await widgets.update(widgetId: 'my_widget');

// Update all installed widgets
await widgets.updateAll();

// Force full timeline reload (iOS) / widget recreation (Android)
await widgets.reloadAll();

// Request widget pin to home screen (Android 8+ only)
final success = await widgets.pinWidget();

// Save a deep link URI for a widget — opens when tapped
await widgets.saveDeepLink(
  widgetId: 'my_widget',
  uri: 'myapp://screen/profile',
);

// Retrieve the stored deep link
final uri = await widgets.getDeepLink(widgetId: 'my_widget');

// Open the deep link programmatically
await widgets.openDeepLink(widgetId: 'my_widget');

Events

// Start listening to native widget events (call once)
widgets.startListening();

// React to widget taps/clicks
widgets.onWidgetClicked.listen((WidgetAction action) {
  print('Widget ${action.widgetId} clicked: ${action.actionId}');
  // action.target tells you if it should openApp, openScreen, or run in background
});

// React to widget lifecycle
widgets.onWidgetAdded.listen((info) => print('Added: ${info.id}'));
widgets.onWidgetRemoved.listen((info) => print('Removed: ${info.id}'));
widgets.onWidgetUpdated.listen((info) => print('Updated: ${info.id}'));

// Stop listening when done
widgets.stopListening();

Accessibility

// Configure accessibility for screen readers
await widgets.setAccessibility(
  widgetId: 'my_widget',
  label: 'Shows current temperature',
  value: '72°F',
  hint: 'Tap to refresh',
  isButton: true,
);

Query

// Get all installed widgets with metadata
final List<WidgetInfo> installed = await widgets.getInstalledWidgets();
for (final info in installed) {
  print('${info.id}: ${info.size} (${info.isInstalled})');
}

// Check if a specific widget is on the home screen
final bool exists = await widgets.isWidgetInstalled('my_widget');

HomeWidgetBuilder

The HomeWidgetBuilder captures theme, accessibility, and RTL configuration and sends it to the native platform:

HomeWidgetBuilder(
  widgetId: 'my_widget',
  themeMode: ThemeMode.system,       // .light, .dark, or .system
  useMaterialYou: true,              // Android 12+ dynamic colors
  semanticLabel: 'Counter showing 5 items',
  textDirection: null,               // Auto-detects from locale
  child: MyWidgetContent(),          // Your widget's visual content
)

Platform Setup

Android

  1. The plugin includes widget receivers and XML metadata out of the box.
  2. Ensure your android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml has the widget receivers declared.
  3. Widget sizes are defined in res/xml/ (small, medium, large, progress, battery, clock).

iOS

  1. Add a Widget Extension target to your Xcode project
  2. Add the widget source files from ios/Classes/widgetkit/ to your extension
  3. Configure an App Group in both the main app and widget extension targets
  4. Add the App Group identifier to your Info.plist:
<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
<string>$(PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER)</string>
  1. The plugin uses UserDefaults(suiteName:) with your App Group for data sharing.

Architecture

lib/
├── native_home_widgets.dart          # Public API facade + exports
└── src/
    ├── models/                       # Typed data models (WidgetInfo, WidgetTheme, etc.)
    ├── platform_interface/           # Abstract contract + MethodChannel impl
    ├── streams/                      # Event streams (native → Dart)
    ├── builders/                     # HomeWidgetBuilder widget
    ├── services/                     # Serialization, validation
    ├── exceptions/                   # 7 typed exceptions
    ├── channels/                     # Method/event channel constants
    └── extensions/                   # Accessibility, localization helpers

android/src/main/kotlin/.../
├── NativeHomeWidgetsPlugin.kt       # MethodChannel + EventChannel handler
├── data/                            # DataStore persistence, serializer
├── glance/widget/                   # 6 Glance widget definitions
├── interaction/                     # Click receiver, deep links, config activity
└── util/                            # Size resolver, image loader

ios/Classes/
├── NativeHomeWidgetsPlugin.swift    # FlutterPlugin + EventChannel
├── data/                            # UserDefaults + App Groups, serializer
├── widgetkit/widget/                # 6 WidgetKit widget definitions
├── interaction/                     # AppIntents, deep links
└── util/                            # Image loader

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines. Issues and PRs are welcome at github.com/dilmer23/native_home_widgets.

License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

Libraries

native_home_widgets
native_home_widgets_web