Samsung Files Patent for a Lock Screen Widget That Stretches Over Your Shortcuts
Samsung's patent application gives the small info panel on your lock screen a new trick: when a call comes in, it stretches sideways over one of your shortcut icons, and the icon on the other side turns into a hang-up button.
What Samsung's shape-shifting lock screen widget does
Every time your phone rings while it's locked, you have to work out what to tap, and fast. The alert and the buttons can end up far apart, and the shortcut icons at the bottom just sit there doing nothing.
Samsung's patent application describes a lock screen with a small information panel (a widget) sitting between two shortcut icons near the bottom, say a phone app and an exercise app. When a call arrives, the panel stretches sideways over the phone shortcut to show who's calling, and the icon on the other side turns into a hang-up button.
A notification from some unrelated app doesn't rearrange anything. It simply appears inside the panel at its normal size. Tap the panel and it grows bigger. Tap anywhere else and it shrinks back.
display, in a lock state of the electronic device, a lock screen comprising a widget located between a first icon and a second icon through the display, display, through the widget, information corresponding to a first application, obtain, while displaying the lock screen, a notification from a second application …
Translation: The phone shows a widget between shortcut icons on the lock screen while waiting for app alerts.
How the widget decides which icon to cover
The lock screen in the filing has three pieces along the bottom: a widget (a small live panel from an app, such as a timer or music player) flanked by two icons (shortcuts to apps, with a phone app and an exercise app as the examples). The widget normally shows information from one app.
The claims center on a sorting rule for incoming notifications:
- If the app that sent the notification is tied to the first icon, the widget expands over that icon's spot and shows the notification there.
- If the sender is tied to neither icon, the notification appears inside the widget without resizing it.
Other claims add detail. Tapping the widget enlarges it sideways toward both icons and upward, and tapping outside it shrinks it back. For a call request, the second icon changes into a graphic for ending a call. You answer through the expanded widget, which then shows call information. When the call ends, the icon goes back to the app it showed before.
The description lists extras the claims don't center on. You can swipe the widget to cycle through apps. The wallpaper can change to match what the widget shows, possibly made by an on-device generative AI model (a program that creates images). The widget can also switch based on connected gear, such as music for earbuds or a battery gauge for a charger.
… based at least in part on determining that the second application is associated with the first icon, expand the widget to a location of the first icon and display the notification through the widget …
Translation: When an alert matches a shortcut icon, the widget stretches over that icon to show the message.
What this means for calls on a locked phone
The lock screen is the part of your phone you see more than any other, and the filing is mostly about making it easier to use one-handed. Samsung says the widget sits where it's convenient to reach while you hold the phone, and that it stays out of the center of the display so it doesn't cover your wallpaper. Putting call controls in the same band as your shortcuts means your thumb travels less.
The filing is a patent application, not a product announcement, and the claims cover the notification rule rather than every idea in the description. The wider description, with its modes, connected-device triggers and wallpaper changes, shows Samsung treating the lock screen as a place for live, context-aware information instead of a static clock.
Samsung's 1486th filing in our Samsung coverage since May follows applications like calendar events from screenshots and app tile resize previews, showing continued focus on small but practical phone interactions.
You would notice this the next time your phone rings while it's locked, on a desk or in your hand. The call controls land at the bottom of the screen where your thumb already rests, instead of in a banner at the top you have to stretch for.
The benefit for you is fewer misfires. When the second shortcut turns into a hang-up button, you can't accidentally open the exercise app when you meant to end the call, and after the call everything snaps back to normal.
The core idea is small: a rule about which notifications get to push the widget around. You would feel it as a lock screen that behaves predictably, with notifications from unrelated apps showing up in place without moving anything. It is a modest change to the screen you look at more than any other.
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The drawings
91 drawing sheets from US 2026/0319636 A1 · click any drawing to enlarge
Show the other 52 sheets
Sheets 61 to 91 are in the full USPTO filing.
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