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Samsung patents touch controls to swap items on phone widgets

Samsung has filed a patent for a method that lets users tap a widget on their home screen to open a control menu. This menu displays the current item along with other related options, allowing the user to select a different item to replace the original one directly on the screen.

Why it mattersThis filing describes a more direct way to customize home screen widgets without opening the full app, which could make managing daily information like weather or messages slightly faster.

In the filing’s own words

An electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes memory, including one or more storage media, storing instructions, and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the memory, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to detect a first touch input with respect to a widget icon displaying a target item on a home screen, display, in response to detecting the first touch input, a control screen providing control over a widget, detect a second touch input with respect to the control screen displaying an item list, the item list including the target item and one or more candidate items associated with the widget, control, based on the second touch input, at least one of the target item or the one or more candidate items of the item list.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. An electronic device comprising: memory, comprising one or more storage media, storing instructions; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the memory, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to: detect a first touch input with respect to a widget icon displaying a target item on a home screen, display, in response to detecting the first touch input, a control screen providing control over a widget, detect a second touch input with respect to the control screen displaying an item list, the item list including the target item and one or more candidate items associated with the widget, and control, based on the second touch input, at least one of the target item or the one or more candidate items of the item list, wherein the target item and the one or more candidate items each provide at least a portion of functions of an application associated with the widget, and wherein the one or more candidate items are items that (i) replace the target item and (ii) are displayed on the home screen as the widget icon.

Facts

Company
Samsung (Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.)
Official title
ELECTRONIC DEVICE FOR PROVIDING INTERACTION WITH WIDGETS AND ITS OPERATION METHOD
Publication number
US20260277430A1
Application number
19678412
Filed
May 15, 2026
Published
Sep 17, 2026
Inventors
5
Claims
20

Classified under

G06F 3/04883 Physics & computingG06F 3/0482 Physics & computingG06F 3/04845 Physics & computing
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.