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Meta's Messenger is the first third-party Windows 11 Widget

Martin Brinkmann
Jan 26, 2023
Updated • Jan 26, 2023
Windows 11 News
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Microsoft released a new Windows 11 build to the Developer Insider channel this week. It includes the first third-party widget for Windows 11's Widget feature next to plenty of fixes.

windows 11 widgets messenger

Microsoft launched the Widgets app in Windows 11 as a central hub featuring news, tips, weather information, and several Microsoft-specific promotions and highlights.

Third-party widgets were not supported back then, but Microsoft promised that support would be added eventually.

Fast forward to January 2023, and the first third-party widget is now available in Developer builds.

Microsoft has a strong partnership with Meta, parent company of Facebook, and the launch of widget support in Messenger confirms that the partnership is still going strong.

Windows 11 users need to install the Messenger app on their device and make sure that it is up to date. Afterwards, it is necessary to add it as a widget by selecting the plus-icon in the Widgets interface and selecting the Messenger widget to pin it to the Widgets board.

Windows 11's Widgets board displays the last few messages that users have received in Messenger from that moment on whenever it is opened.

The data is limited to just a few words, the name of the contact and the time. A click opens the full message in the Messenger application on the device.

Microsoft announced that more widgets will become available in the foreseeable future as "more developers create and release widgets for their apps".

Not all applications make good targets for placement on the widgets board, and it remains to be seen if third-party support will increase the attractiveness of Widgets, or if it remains a niche feature, despite it being promoted heavily by Microsoft.

Expect more chat, cloud-based, and entertainment apps to come with widgets support in the coming years.

Microsoft never revealed numbers regarding widgets. It is unclear if the feature is popular or if most Windows 11 users ignore it by removing the icon from the taskbar.

To remove the Widgets interface, right-click on a blank space on the Windows 11 taskbar, select Taskbar Settings and flip the switch next to Widgets to off. Disabling Widgets may save system resources, actually.

You may also check out Ashwin's guide on uninstall widgets in Windows 11.

Now You: do you use Widgets? If not, would you if Microsoft would make changes to the feature?

Summary
Meta's Messenger is the first third-party Windows 11 Widget
Article Name
Meta's Messenger is the first third-party Windows 11 Widget
Description
The first third-party widget for Windows 11's Widgets feature is Meta's Messenger application.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. John G. said on January 26, 2023 at 2:58 pm
    Reply

    Crap doing more crap for a crap OS.

    1. Anonymous said on January 26, 2023 at 10:58 pm
      Reply

      If you don’t care about it why do you waste your time commenting on it?

      Microsoft can do anything to win11, Windows it is still a program launcher, which means, it will run hundreds of software, with faster technologies and with more variety and more powerful hardware than Linux and MacOS.

      I don’t know about you, but people do more in a computer than just starting at taskbars and start menus. They actually want to use software without hacking it, suboptimal features or performance, making use of hardware 100% and make it everything fast and easy.
      Examples:
      Adobe, Autodesk, Maxon, Studio one, Avid, Image-Line software, and many other audio software with their plugins, Marmoset software, Nevercenter, Sketchup, Rhino, Rocket 3F, Moi3D, Cascadeur, iClone, Akeytsu, Lumion, most game engines, most videogames, most emulators, most videogame mod programs, wacom hardware, Office, Affinity software, Corel software, also, video editing software Magix/Vegas software, Hitfilm, Pinnacle, Cyberlink, Photography software like Capture One, Dxo, Exposure, Zoner, On1, ACDSee, Topaz, Luminar, QuadSpinner software, Softwarre like Chaos Vintage (since others are just plugins so they might be available for Maya/Houdini like Phoenix or Vray), ArchiCAD, AutoDesSys – form·Z…. Do you want me to continue?
      Of course many software I sad was by company so they cover almost a dozen or more of software not comaptible with Linux.

      I mean, people should stop the whole “Windows crap” when Windows is meant to launch programs, it is pretty good at it since old software from 90s can still work today but most likely relatively modern software from vista days, almost 20 years ago still are okay.

      I know that for some people that idea of people actually doing work with devices it is too much, but yeah, Windows will always be better because you can do anything and everything on it, you can get the best software, best hardware for the best software, and don’t worry about ‘not working’ or having to use terminal to enable the simplest things or use WINE and then suffer glitches because it is not meant to replace Windows doesn’t matter how much people wish so.
      It sounds really dumb when people are saying how Linux can be used for gaming while most games don’t work properly and they have way less FPS than on Windows, plus many games need launchers that are not compatible with Linux and their couple users that might run said game = making it not worth it to port it or make it available for Linux.

      Maybe it is time to grow up from the old “but Linux, muh privacy fairy tale, my customized interface where I can install different distros or GUI libraries, when you can barely run professional software on it. Let’s be honest, driver makers don’t even care so much about Linux, especially Nvidia which is better than AMD, or Wacom which has always been great at what they do.

      Grow up please, you and the other Microsoft/Windows haters who pretend like all they do is stare at the startmenu and bar and Windows can’t do anything else, yet, running linux needs terminal for a lot of simple things, breaks on upgrades and there is no ‘easy life’ with it.

      Windows can technically even ran without the whole Windows interface, if anyone could launch programs with only a CMD/terminal window (which they can do) it would do exactly the same thing, launch programs not available in Linux.

  2. Julian said on January 26, 2023 at 2:47 pm
    Reply

    One more pointless insider build. They added widgets for other brand items instead of addressing their own faulty taskbar, start menu, and right menu? What is happening at Microsoft, really? Why has nobody been let go from this pathetic team yet?

  3. Rb said on January 26, 2023 at 11:00 am
    Reply

    Thanks again for the info Martin.

    BTW.. I’ve been visiting your Ghacks/Windows page for years but find the small number of news items listed there quite limited, and to be honest, a bit dull. It was only this morning that I spotted a tiny link that said: ‘See All’. Clicking that link transforms the page into a much more attractive and readable news format that I could happily live with as the main ‘Ghacks/Windows’ news page.

    I cant believe I missed that link before. Suggest you make the link larger and more prominent if poss. https://www.ghacks.net/category/windows/

    Thanks again.

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