For today’s Tuesday Tweak, we’re focusing our attention on DashClock, a very flexible third-party notification app, which incidentally recently passed the three million installation milestone. The application is available to download on any smartphone or tablet running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean or higher, and provides users with the facility to view detailed notifications on both their home screen and lock screen.

The widget comes bundled with a series of ‘extensions’ that furnish users with instant access to their local weather, missed calls, unread text messages, upcoming calendar appointments, Gmail notifications and scheduled alarms.

However, if you would like to receive notifications from other applications, you can also download additional extensions from the Play Store, such as for example, an add-on to display your last WhatsApp message together with the senders name and a preview of the text, an add-on to show the name of the song you are currently playing on your Android device, or an add on to present your last Snapchat or even Facebook notification. The possibilities are endless.

Adding the widget to your handset’s lock screen is incredibly simple. Firstly you’ll need to ensure that ‘Enable Widgets’ is turned on in your security settings. Then, lock your device and swipe to the lefthand side of your lock screen. Touch the ‘+’ icon that appears in the centre of the screen. You’ll then be presented with a menu. Sift through the options until you find DashClock and tap on it. This will add the widget to your lock screen.

If you find yourself using DashClock quite a lot and want to make it your primary lock screen widget, effectively replacing the default clock, just touch and hold on the widget whilst dragging it horizontally on the screen to the very rightmost position, then let go. This will make the widget the first thing you see whenever you lock your handset. I’ve been using this as my lock screen for a while now and would feel  totally lost without it. I find it particularly useful for staying up-to-date with the latest news when I’m away from my computer, thanks to the official Press extension.

DashClock is completely free to download and use. You can give it a try today by clicking the link below to download and install it directly from the Google Play Store. I promise, you won’t be disappointed. This application is definitely worth your attention.

• Google Play StoreDashclock