Android App Review: WidgetLocker Lockscreen

Publisher: TeslaCoil Software
Platform: Android 2.1 or higher
Cost: $0.99 (Introductory Sale)
[AppBrain Link]
Release Date: June 17, 2010
Version Reviewed: 1.1.2

As most of you know, one of the best things about Android is the customization ability of the operating system.  Even without rooting, you can do many things to personalize your device and make it fit your style.  Besides the home screen, probably the most seen screens in Android is the lock screen.  The lock screen is the boring old slide to unlock screen with a clock, and that’s about it.  Wouldn’t it be nice to customize the lock screen with some widgets to make it more useful? Enter WidgetLocker Lockscreen.  WidgetLocker allows you to completely customize your lock screen with widgets, and even application shortcuts.

As you can see, my WidgetLocker screen looks very similar to a typical home screen.  I’ve got Beautiful Widgets, Pure Calendar Widget, and some shortcuts on my lock screen.  WidgetLocker also allows me to completely remove the slide-to-unlock function and simply use the home button to “unlock” my phone.  This gives me instant screen real estate!

For you HTC Sense users, WidgetLocker can replicate the HTC pull-down lock screen as well.  Check out the developer’s website for more screenshots.  For those of you that use a pattern or PIN unlock, WidgetLocker does work in conjunction with those features as well. You can display whatever you want on the screen, and it will ask you for your password before opening any item.  WidgetLocker provides a lot of flexibility within its options screen.  You can set it to allow your phone to unlock with any button you like.  You can also hide the notification bar and unlock the volume buttons for use while locked.

WidgetLocker does still have some quirks, but it has come a long way already since version 1.0.  Occasionally, the standard lock screen may come up, and it may have to be manually launched after a restart.  Depending on the number of widgets you have on screen, it can be slower than the stock lock screen.   Also, due to the way Android manages memory, unless you check the option to have a permanent notification item, it may  be closed by the system.  Amazingly, I’ve had very few force closes, and every new version has improved on the weaknesses.

WidgetLocker has been a great find, and I’ve found that by using it in conjunction with QuickDesk (which I reviewed a couple weeks ago), I rarely use my home screens. I can access just about everything I use from either the lock screen or QuickDesk in much less time than it takes to slide through several screens to find an app.  It’s a completely different Android experience, but great nonetheless.