Gratitude saw 25% higher reten... Note

Gratitude saw 25% higher retention for widget users

Gratitude app developers created widgets to encourage daily reflection and mindfulness practices. These widgets provided quick access to journaling prompts, affirmations, and vision boards on the home screen. The widgets resulted in a 25% increase in user retention and more journal entries. The original widgets used XML-based RemoteViews, which created technical debt and design inconsistencies. To modernize, the team switched to Jetpack Glance, a declarative framework. Jetpack Glance reduced development time, improved code readability, and enabled dynamic features like color and resizing. The team also implemented Generated Widget Previews and tested extensively across various devices. To promote the new widgets, the developers used in-app widget pinning for discoverability. Refactoring the widget packages required re-prompting widget users to restore or update their widgets. As a result of this work, approximately 10% of the app's daily active users have adopted the widgets. The developers found Jetpack Glance easier and more flexible than RemoteViews and aligned better with the app's overall design. The Gratitude app experience demonstrates how widgets drive habit formation and improve user experience.