Android 10 Go Edition...no widgets present.

[Android Central Question]

Hi,
I recently bought a cheaper Android tablet with Android 10 Go Edition, 16Gb RAM / 2Gb ROM....IPS screen, etc. It runs fine. Netflix shows up in decent resolution, no lagging, etc. I have two bugbears with the unit.
1/ If you push on any empty part of the screen (as with other Android devices) there are no widgets offered...not even if you open the app draw...no widgets at all. If you add third party widgets they also don't show up.
2/ I have added an extra 16Gb microSD card. I know it is working because some apps migrated to it but it does not show up in any file explorer but I can see it when I look under the storage option in settings.

Can anyone give me the lowdown on what is happening? Any help gratefully appreciated.

 

[VidJunky]

Welcome to Android Central.

From what I've read about Android Go, it is designed for low RAM devices. 2GB or less actually. So it is a little surprising to hear your device has 16 and came with Go. It would appear that Go is your issue. Being designed for such low RAM it likely doesn't support widgets as those typically require more RAM, which your device has but that your OS does not support. In all of the images I've seen of the Go Edition there is no clock, no Google Search and no calendar ever pictured. I would venture a guess that you also don't have voice commands or Google Assistant, am I correct?

If your device truly has 16GB of RAM the only way it would appear that you could over come this would be if you could install or upgrade to another version of Android.

Have you looked in the device settings and confirmed that it is 16 and not 1.6 as that would be more in-line with what this OS was designed to support? Perhaps if you let us know what device, model and maker, you have we could dig up more information to help you?

To reply to this thread and to receive notifications when others reply please create an account. This link will help you do that... https://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/409154-join-android-central-community-new-post.html

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! I'm sure the OP means 2 GB RAM and 16 GB ROM (internal storage).

I agree with VidJunky about this most likely being a limitation of Android Go. I couldn't find anything definitive about this on the web, but I did come across a suggestion to try installing a 3rd party launcher like GCA Launcher Beta.

 

[mustang7757]

Yeah I would also try a 3rd party launcher see if the widget show up

 

[waste-o-space]

Yeah I would also try a 3rd party launcher see if the widget show up

Your suggestion is spot on. I installed Nova Launcher and have no trouble getting my must-have Pulsar music player widget once again.

I suspect that OP will benefit similarly, from using a non-stock launcher.

Sauce: I just picked up a couple of Alcatel 1B phones with a similar config as OP: Android 10 Go, 2GB ram, 16GB ROM, 4-core Qualcomm 215 CPU. They're not powerhouses but not awful, either. I got 'em as cheap backup handsets. Same situation, no widgets ... until I installed Nova.

 

[mustang7757]

Your suggestion is spot on. I installed Nova Launcher and have no trouble getting my must-have Pulsar music player widget once again.

I suspect that OP will benefit similarly, from using a non-stock launcher.

Sauce: I just picked up a couple of Alcatel 1B phones with a similar config as OP: Android 10 Go, 2GB ram, 16GB ROM, 4-core Qualcomm 215 CPU. They're not powerhouses but not awful, either. I got 'em as cheap backup handsets. Same situation, no widgets ... until I installed Nova.

Thats great figured any 3rd party launcher would do it but Nova my personal favorite, also I was agreeing with B. Diddy as he first mentioned trying a 3rd party launcher .