Home screen widget appearance

The dimensions of a widget displayed in the home screen view depend on many factors and may be different for each mobile device.

A widget enabled for the home screen has two views, home screen view and a full screen view:

When mobile device users adds a widget to the home screen, it is launched in home screen view.
When users select the home screen widget, it opens in full screen view.
When users launch a widget independent of the home screen (for example, from Applications ) it is displayed in full screen view.

Figure: Widgets on the home screen

The size of the frame in which the home screen widget is displayed depends on:

The display size of the mobile device. For example, on small screens all home screen widgets are arranged in one column, whereas on larger screens widgets can be arranged in two columns.
The display orientation (portrait or landscape).
The space available on the home screen. For example, some mobile devices may have more mandatory home screen applications than others or they may use dynamic sizing of home screen widgets depending on the number of widgets currently being displayed.

For information on designing your widget for different screen sizes, see Creating content specific to home screen widgets.

The home screen widget background is the same as it is in the full screen view. It cannot be adjusted for the home screen because the widget sends a static image to the home screen for display.