IOS 14 and higher lets you put widgets on your iPhone home screen. And thanks to third-party apps, you can actually create your own widgets. Not only do you get new functionality on your home screen, but you the ultimate list of interview questions to ask remote workers can also create it in your own unique style.
A Smart Stack automatically rotates widgets to show the most relevant information throughout the day. You’ll now see the customized widget on your home screen. Swipe up on the Home bar or press the Home button to exit the editing mode. Once you know how to add widgets to your home screen, check out our article on how to hide apps on your iPhone to customize it even more. You can also drag a widget all the way to the left side of your screen to add it to your Today View, so you can access it from your lock screen.
- You can go back and customize one of the other widget templates.
- Then tap the plus sign in the top-left corner of your screen.
- Long press on an app icon or your wallpaper.
- But you can experience how interactive widgets work right now once you install the iOS 17 public beta.
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After adding and reordering widgets, you might want to remove some of Apple’s stock widgets. To do this, simply tap on the red Minus (-) button. You’ll now see a list of enabled widgets at the top of the menu. You can use widget stacks to save space on your Home Screen and in Today View. You can use Smart Stacks or create your own widget stacks.
Create Custom App Icons
Currently, there are widgets that will display your favorite photo albums, the top news stories of the day, upcoming events on your calendar, and more. Here’s how to add, edit, how to buy stacks and create widgets on your iPhone to customize your home screen. To use interactive widgets, make sure you have a widget from the compatible apps installed on either your home screen or lock screen. IOS 14 lets you change your home screen with custom widgets and app icons. With Widget Suggestions, your iPhone will automatically add and remove widgets depending on the context. An option lets you add the widget to your stack so it’s always there when you need it.
Swipe all the way down to the bottom of the widgets screen and tap on the “Edit” button to customize the Today View screen. By default, Apple shows you the widgets from the Weather app, Siri Suggestions, Music, Favorites, and more. When you get into the editing view, you’ll notice that your widget has expanded to the Large size. This here is the best, or the most frustrating part of Widgeridoo, depending on how you look at it. Now, swipe up from the Home bar or press the Home button to exit the home screen editing view.
How to Customize Your iPhone With Widgets
The process for customizing the widget is the same, so for this example, we are going to customize a Day and Date widget with custom fonts and colors. From here, you can also tap on any widget in the stack to change its settings. Click ‘Add’ to add your new icon to your iPhone home screen. It will appear in the first free space on your home screen. Select ‘Choose Photo’ and choose a photo from your photo app.
After you choose one, you’ll see the preview in the widget itself. You can press and hold a block to drag it somewhere else. You can preview the widget in the small, medium, or large size. Tap the “Edit” button to customize the widget. While Watchsmith is great for creating simple custom widgets, you can do some really complex things with Widgeridoo.
Here, you’ll see all of the apps that support widgets. After opening the Widgeridoo app, you’ll find a collection of pre-made widgets. As you’re starting out with the app, we recommend you customize the “Today” widget. And that’s it, you have just created and added an awesome-looking widget to your iPhone home screen. You can go back to the Widgetsmith app to create more widgets.
You can keep on creating more rows/columns. But Widgeridoo automatically adapts the layout for different sizes, so you’ll have to tap the “Done” button to see the preview. Like I said, interactive widgets are simple to operate once you know which apps support this new iOS 17 feature. As part of my iOS 17 hands-on time, I’ve profiled other top time-saving iOS 17 features that you can try out as well. To customize widgets on your iPhone, tap and hold the widget, select Edit Widget, and then tap the information you want to change. Some widgets don’t let you change any settings, while others only allow you to customize one or two settings.
If you want to get rid of the widget, long-press to bring up a remove option. To reorder widgets, tap on the three-line Handle icon found on the right edge of the screen and then drag each item to reorganize the list. Next, swipe up to the top of the page and take a look at the enabled widgets. You’ll probably want to put your frequently used widgets at the top of the list. In the More Widgets section, you’ll find a list of the widgets for apps that are installed on your iPhone.
While Widgeridoo is quite extensible, it’s a bit tricky to use. So, we would suggest you get started by customizing one of the prebuilt widgets. Widgeridoo lets you 8 best free and open-source drawing libraries in javascript preview the widgets for free, but to add widgets to the home screen, you’ll have to pay for the $3.99 in-app purchase. After years of looking at the same grid of icons, it’s time to finally customize your iPhone to your heart’s content.
How to make custom iPhone app icons in iOS 14 with shortcuts
You can actually pin the Today View section right to the Home screen for quick access. And if you like the widget, tap on the “Add Widget” link to add the widget to the bottom of the Today View screen. Once you’re happy with the arrangement of your widgets, tap on the “Done” button. When you find a widget that you want to add, tap on the Plus (+) button next to the widget.
There are several style options to choose from. If you’re going with a theme, try to match the aesthetic. The free version of Widgetsmith offers widgets for your calendar, clock, reminders, activity (via Apple Health) and photos.
You can add them to the Photos app or the Files app. By Barbara Krasnoff, a reviews editor who manages how-tos. She’s worked as an editor and writer for almost 40 years. Previously, she was a senior reviews editor for Computerworld. You can scroll down and choose a border as well. Tap the circle next to the to-do item you’ve completed.
Widgetsmith is great for creating simple, template-based widgets. You can add calendar, reminders, weather, battery, date, and photo widgets to the iPhone home screen (in small, medium, and large sizes). Next, you should download apps for creating customized widgets. While you’ll find many apps on the App Store to do this, we would recommend you try Widgetsmith and Widgeridoo. Once you download the apps, read our step-by-step guide for creating custom widgets.