What happened to the Starbucks widget?

[Android Central Question]

I used it yesterday. It is completely gone this morning -- not even available as a widget to reinstall. Does anyone know what happened to it?

 

[John Rosen]

I have the same issue. I contacted Starbucks's incompetent customer support. They promised to call me back in three days.

 

[Ginette Marte]

Mine disappeared too and I used it just yesterday!

 

[Goddess_6000]

Me too!! Seemed like it happened after the software update yesterday. Only noticed it this morning.

 

[mlbaumgartner]

Me too. Strange. Glad I'm not the only one! Guessing they will have it fixed soon

 

[B. Diddy]

Yep, just saw that myself this morning. I'll send some feedback to the dev, and you should too! Info@Starbucks.com

BTW, a response by the dev to a Play Store review complaining about the widget disappearing says the following: "As of Android 7.1, shortcuts were introduced to launch directly into key actions in an app. Our app has shortcuts to : • Pay in store • Add money • Find Stores • Place an Order To enable a shortcut: 1 Touch and hold the app, then lift your finger 2 Touch and hold the shortcut 3 Slide the shortcut to where you want it. Lift your finger"

But this doesn't make a lot of sense to me -- the widget was working on my Pixel 3 XL running Pie as recently as yesterday. I find the widget more convenient than long-pressing the app icon.:-\

 

[Tjwhitt67]

Here is what I got today. It looks like it was intentional, and they are only going to do shortcuts from now on. Here is the response I got from Starbucks "Hello, The old-style widget for the app has been replaced with four new shortcuts with the release of version 5.7 on May 20, 2019. You can add the following widgets to your app:

•Paying in Store
•Adding Money
•Finding Nearby Stores
•Placing an Order

To add one of these:
1.Touch and hold the app, you'll see a list.
2.Touch and hold the widget to add.
3.Slide the widget to where you want it, then lift your finger.

Note: To use a widget without adding to a Home screen, tap it.

I appreciate your time."

I explained that I liked the widget not just shortcuts he directed me to submit it as a feature to be brought back

 

[Tjwhitt67]

Just an FYI. I was able to download the 5.6 apk and restore the widget

 

[Rukbat]

@Tjwhitt67, They're giving you the equivalent of widgets, they're just not writing them the same way, so you can't get them from the normal place, you have to get the widget from the app. (A widget is just a shortcut to an app with a specific command passed to it, a normal shortcut [dragging the app from the app drawer to the home screen] just doesn't have any commands.)

 

[B. Diddy]

One thing the app icon menu does not do (and which is the main reason I liked the widget) is show the current balance on my card at a glance.

 

[Tjwhitt67]

Exactly! It offers the same shortcut option but I don't have to open the App to get the $$ left on my card and the number of stars and rewards. It's all right there on the widget on my home screen. It's why people have widgets in the first place. A quick and easy way to get info without having to open apps. Take a weather widget for example. Why have it if you already have a weather app icon and or shortcut? Because it has all the basic info right on the screen without a need to open the app.

 

[B. Diddy]

Yup. Another example is the Google Tasks app -- this app sorely needs a widget, because for a to-do list, it's most efficient to have it displaying all the time on a homescreen as a widget, rather than having to locate the icon and tap it to bring it up.

 

[michca2112]

Cheers to Tjwhitt67 response above!

I popped on here to see what was up and after seeing their post I unistalled the SB app on my phone and downloaded it again through APKPure, which lets you select which version you want to put on your phone. I chose the version before this crappy update (version 5.6) and now I have the widget again. Woo!