Widgets, or user-set blocks of information (weather, stocks, email previews, news stories, etc), were present in Android since five years ago in the form of homescreen widgets. Apple quietly added widgets to the notification center, allowing users to install apps that will give the Notification Center something worth looking at.

Clinton Nguyen
Notification widgets, introduced in the iOS 8 update, allow the user to pick and choose which apps show up in the notification drawer.