Widgets were reinstated in Windows 11, although they were moved to a panel that was accessible from the taskbar rather than the desktop. Now there are even more widgets on the way.
For all PCs signed up for the Windows Insider program, Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25290 is now rolling out in the Dev Channel. It adds two more widgets, albeit you must first download them from the Microsoft Store's widgets section. A Spotify widget displays suggested playlists and other options, and a Phone Link widget shows the current state and most recent notifications of a linked phone.
As you test out these and other new widgets, Microsoft asked in a blog post, "Please let us know what you think through the Widgets feedback link in the widgets picker. As more developers produce and deploy widgets for their apps, you may anticipate seeing more brand-new widgets.
Since Microsoft provided an SDK, independent developers have been able to produce widgets for the first time; prior to this, only Microsoft's own widgets were supported on stable editions of Windows 11. In January, Facebook Messenger started testing a widget; as third-party widget functionality spreads to more PCs, we may anticipate seeing more of them.