iPhone Widgets Make Your Homescreen Totally Customized. Here’s How to Get Them
Widgets are mini-versions of your apps that run on you iPhone‘s home screen, provides information at a glance or gives instant access to a variety of tasks, without opening the application every time. These useful squares can be used in a wide variety of useful ways, or can simply help make your home screen more personal.
Although this was earlier a feature found only on Android phones, with the launch of iOS 16, iPhone users could also make use of widgets from big names like Spotify, Gmail, Outlook and more.
Even better, they are incredibly easy to use. Here’s how.
Check this out:
Alexa has its own widget – how to add it to your iPhone’s…
1:51
How to install a new widget on your iPhone
Long press an empty area of your iPhone’s home screen. When the app icons start to jiggle, as you’ve seen when rearranging apps, you’ll now see a small + icon appears in the top left corner of your phone. Tap on it and it will open the widgets menu.
This little plus that appears when you long press on an app? That’s what you need to hit to find your widgets.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
You will then be presented with a variety of widgets available to you, including all of Apple’s own (such as fitness, photos and maps). Scroll it down and you’ll then find a list of all your installed apps that offer home screen widgets. Tapping on one will bring up a new menu showing the various widgets available for that particular app.
Apple has some great widgets to choose from. Not all of them will have great selfies by me in them.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
For example, tapping on Lightroom will give you the option to add a small square to quickly take a photo with the front or back camera or to access various learning resources. Spotify’s widget, meanwhile, will display your most recently played playlists.
Click on the Add widget button below will, surprise, add that widget to your home screen, which you can then drag around wherever you want. Do you want to get rid of it? Long press the widget and a Remove widget option will appear.
Find the widget you want, then press the Add Widget button below.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
Do you like widgets? Select Android
While the introduction of widgets with iOS 14 was welcome, they are quite limited in what they can do. For example, Google’s Gmail widget only gives you the option to tap to start a new email and shows you the number of unread emails. On Androidyou can put a Gmail widget on your home screen that will show your actual inbox, making it very easy to see what new messages need to be responded to.
The number widgets available on Android of other apps are generally much larger, with much more flexibility about what you can do with each widget when placed on your home screen. If you love the idea of fully customizing your phone with widgets from all your favorite apps, Android is the way to go.
For more, learn how FaceTime with an Android phone and everything to know about the latest update, iOS 15.
