Occasionally, Android apps have issues, and it becomes necessary to shut them down. Generally, when you do this, any widgets that you’ve set up will continue working.
As spotted by Android Police, Google put an update on its developer website outlining how forcing-stopping apps is changing for Android 15.
Now, when an app is force-stopped, any connected widgets will be temporarily disabled and greyed out. The reason is that if an app is causing problems, just closing the app itself might not solve the problem, especially if the widget is why the app is acting weird.
The temporary disabling happens as Android stops the app’s pending intents. While this happens, the widgets won’t work until the app they’re connected to is relaunched. The relaunch can be accomplished directly by tapping its icon or indirectly through the Share menu within another app.
For most Android users, this will just affect when they force-stop an app. On a more significant level, it’s meant for developers to help them find out where issues might be stemming from when app code acts up.
The update from Google on the developer site listed several other behavior changes coming to Android 15. Some of these include updating apps for Private Space, which lets users hide files and folders as they want for privacy, and updates to the system UI.
Google has not officially announced a release date for Android 15 software. However, Google usually launches Android updates in early fall, around September, though Android 14 did appear in October, closer to the launch of the Pixel phones.
That’s our best guess. In the meantime, various Android 15 beta programs will appear throughout the summer if you’re interested in trying out the future of the OS before it drops to the masses.
