How to use widgets to check battery levels and control Galaxy Buds 2, Galaxy Buds Pro, Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Buds+, and Galaxy Buds?

You can use widgets on Android devices to check battery levels and control Galaxy Buds devices, including Galaxy Buds 2, Galaxy Buds Pro, Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Buds+, and Galaxy Buds.

So, you may save some time by skipping the Galaxy Wearable app to check battery levels and quickly control Galaxy Buds devices directly from the home screen of your Android phones.

This Galaxy Buds guide explains how to add the widget to the Home screen of your Android devices, how to customize it, and how to use the widget to check battery levels and control your Galaxy Buds.

Please note, this feature is only available on Android devices (not just on Samsung Galaxy phones). And it is available for all Galaxy Buds released so far. However, Samsung hasn't released this feature to iOS users.

What Galaxy Buds devices are supported by the widget?

Currently, all Galaxy Buds, including Galaxy Buds, Galaxy Buds+, Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Buds Pro, and Galaxy Buds 2, are supported.

But each model has its own plugin in the Galaxy Wearable app. And therefore, each model of these buds needs separate widgets.

For example, if you have both Galaxy Buds Live and Galaxy Buds 2, you will have to add the widgets for these two earbuds separately.

Again, although iOS 14 and later versions support widgets, Samsung hasn't added widget support in iOS. So you cannot use the widget to control any Galaxy Buds on iOS.

Please note, on iOS, only Galaxy Buds+ and Galaxy Buds Live are supported. Other Galaxy Buds can only be used as a normal Bluetooth headset (without any additional controls).

Steps to add Galaxy Buds widget to the Home screen

To add the Galaxy Buds Live widgets, for example, on Galaxy S21, you can tap and hold (or pinch) any blank area on the Home screen to enter the Home screen edit mode.

This method works on all Samsung Galaxy phones and the majority of other Android devices.

Once in the home screen edit mode, you can tap the Widgets button, as shown below.

Now, on the widgets screen, you can find all available widgets that could be added to the Home screen. Widgets are organized by the parents' apps, which are listed alphabetically.

In this guide, we are trying to add widgets for Galaxy Buds Live. So, you may need to swipe to the right or left to find the Galaxy Buds Live widgets.

The number “2” below Galaxy Buds Live indicates that there are two available widgets for this app (Galaxy Buds Live plugin in the Galaxy Wearable app).

You need to tap the thumbnail of the Galaxy Buds Live widget to check the look and contents of the 2 widgets before adding them to the Home screen.

As shown in the screenshot below, the first Galaxy Buds Live widget is Battery info (4×1). There is also a preview of the widgets. You can use it to display the battery level of the buds and the charging case.

The 4×1 tells you the default size of the widgets. It, by default, occupies 4 spots in one row on the Home screen. Of course, you can resize it, subject to a minimum size.

The white dot below the widget preview indicates the current position of this widget. On the screenshot below, it is the first one. So, you can swipe from right to left to access the second one.

You can tap Add button as shown below to add this widget to the Home screen (read on). Alternatively, you can tap and hold (aka long tap)the thumbnail to add it to the Home screen.

For Galaxy Buds Live, the second widget is Quick control, as shown in the screenshot above.

You can use this widget to quickly enable/disable active noise-cancelling and to enable/disable the touch panel. The later feature effectively disables touch controls on Galaxy Buds Live temporally.

Again, you can tap the Add button to add it to the Home screen.

Before the widget is added to the Home screen, Samsung asks you to customize it a bit. Of course, you can use the default settings. But you cannot skip this widget settings screen.

For Galaxy Buds Live widgets, below the preview, as shown below, you can customize:

• Background colour. You have to choose wither white or black.
• Background transparency. 100% means 0% tranpanency, and therefore, blocks the Hoem screen wallpaper with the choosen colour. In the other extreme, 0% means fully transpanent and therefore the wallpaper will be used as the background of this widget.
• Match with dark mode. You can choose to let the widget match the dark mode settings on the phone.

Once you are ready with the customizations, tap the Save button, as shown below, to add this widget to the Home screen.

When the widget is added to the Home screen, you can resize it or relocate it to other locations. Of course, you can do this later at any time.

As shown in the screenshot above, you can use the handles on the left and right sides to resize it. There are no handles at the top and bottom sides because this widget can only take one row.

You can drag the handle to resize the widget. You can also tap and hold the widget to relocate it.

All widgets in Android devices have a minimum size. When resizing the widgets, you cannot make them smaller than this size.

For example, the Galaxy Buds Live battery info widget has a minimum size of 2×1. The boundary will turn red if you want to make it smaller than 2×1, as shown in the screenshot below.

How to customize the widgets on the Home screen?

As discussed earlier, before the Galaxy Buds Live widget is added to the Home screen, you must go through the widget settings page to customize it.

Once the widget is on the Home screen, you can access the same settings page by tapping and holding (long tapping) on the widget.

As shown in the screenshot below, you can see the handles for you to resize the widget area. At the same time, the context menu pops out.

You can tap the Settings button to access the widget settings page, which is identical to the one shown when adding the widget to the Home screen.

For detailed explanations and other advanced usages of widgets on Galaxy phones, you may check this guide.

How to use widget to check battery levels of Galaxy Buds Live and charging case?

All Galaxy Buds, except Galaxy Buds 2 (read on), have the battery info widget.

So, you can check the battery level info for both the buds and the charging case.

For example, as shown in the screenshot below, the Galaxy Buds Live is fully charged, and the charging case has about 80% battery left.

The battery level of the charging case sometimes may not be shown. If this happens, you can try to keep the case open for a slightly longer period after taking out the buds.

How to use widget to control Galaxy Buds?

The quick control widget is available for all Galaxy Buds.

There are two buttons, as shown in the screenshot above, in this widget so that you can use them to turn on or turn off the features quickly:

• Active noise cacelling (or ambient sound for Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds+)
• Block touches.

For Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds+, because of the lack of active noise cancelling, the first button is to enable or disable ambient sound.

While for all other Galaxy Buds with ANC (Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Buds Pro, and Galaxy Buds 2), the first Active Noise Cancelling button is for you to enable or disable ANC.

The second Block Touches button allows you to turn on or turn off the touch panel. You may inadvertently touch the touch panel frequently when exercising. In this scenario, you may want to disable the touch panel temporally.

Without the widget, you have to dive to the Galaxy Wearable app to find the option. You have to go back again when you want to enable the touch panel later. So, this button actually is very useful.

Why Galaxy Buds 2 only has one widget?

For Galaxy Buds 2, Samsung combined the two widgets into one.

So, you will have only one available widget, as shown below.

The battery level of the buds and the charging case is shown on the top right, as highlighted in the screenshot above.

It actually makes sense. Most Galaxy Buds owners may do not want to use a separate widget just for the battery level info if it can be combined neatly with other widgets.

Do you know how to use widgets to check battery levels and control Galaxy Buds 2, Galaxy Buds Pro, Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Buds+, and Galaxy Buds now?

If you have any questions on using widgets to check battery levels and control Galaxy Buds 2, Galaxy Buds Pro, Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Buds+, and Galaxy Buds, please let us know in the comment box.

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