One of the many things I liked about my last phone, the HTC One, was its lock screen weather widget. In a world of full-featured, minute-by-minute weather apps, it didn’t offer much: just the current temperature, the day’s projected high and low range, and an icon that indicated sun, rain, or snow. But it did exactly what I wanted. I could hit the power button on my way out the door and instantly gauge whether I should be grabbing a heavy coat or a light jacket, and whether I should worry about rain soaking my shoes. I retired the One last year, and months after switching to a shiny new Pixel, I’m constantly asking myself: why won’t Google let me do the same thing?

Google clearly understands that weather widgets are an inordinately…

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