How to Create Widgets on iPhone

How to Create Widgets on iPhone

Without eating or drinking it, the revamped iOS Widgets have been with us for several years now, but it wasn’t until the iOS 14 update that we were able to set them on the phone’s home screen, allowing them to alter their size and position based on the apps we already had. have installed on the mobile.

Thanks to this feature, you no longer need to tap and swipe through multiple home screens to find what you need. Everything is in view, be it the weather forecast, calendar appointments, battery levels and just about anything else you can think of.

widgets iOs 14

Adding them to your phone is not very complicated and now iOS also allows you to even edit them in shape and size quite easily.

What are iOS Widgets?

Basically, they are the same as what we find in the Android operating system, but with some other peculiarity.

On paper, widgets are applications that remain always active, not only on the lock screen of your iPhone or iPad, but also on any of the Apple smartphone screens. They can be of various sizes and offer different functions, occupying a space that goes from a square of 4 icons, to a huge rectangle of 16 icons.

They offer practical information or instant access to the most used functions of the iPhone, such as the weather or the date and time. They can also be used to enjoy quick access to another of the services you use the most on your iPhone, such as the advice app or whatever you need at all times.

Differences with Android Widgets

Each operating system follows its own style and here there are users who think that some are better than others and vice versa.

In appearance and style, the Apple operating system wins, much more elegant and better integrated with the rest of the iOS user interface . But beauty is not everything and its functionality is, to say the least, questionable. The question is the same as always, Apple restricts the customization of these software elements too much and their usefulness is limited, in almost all circumstances, to displaying information.

Widgets Android 12

While on iOS the widgets are not 100% interactive , on Android there is complete freedom of movement and any developer can add the functions they want to their creation.

Configure Widgets on your iPhone

Now that we know how they work, what they do and how they differ from Google’s operating system, it’s time to set up our first Widget on the iPhone, as long as it’s updated to iOS 14 or higher.

Add a Widget to the Home screen

Adding Widgets on iOS is practically the same as what we do on Android phones. You simply have to select where you want to host it and follow this simple process:

  1. Go to the place on the screen where you want to add
  2. Press your finger on an empty space on the iPhone
  3. Wait for the apps to ‘shake’
  4. Click on the ‘+’ button that you will find in the upper corner
  5. Choose a Widget from all those proposed by Apple
  6. Press Add Widget and confirm the operation

añadir widget

Add a Widget to the ‘Today’ tab

The iPhone’s operating system allows you to not only add these software items to any screen on your phone, but also to the ‘Today’ page that appears when you swipe all the way to the left from the main screen on your phone.

Just swipe right from the home screen and you’ll see a series of widgets already predefined by Apple. You can remove widgets from this screen by long pressing on the widget or by scrolling to the bottom of the screen and clicking Edit . Once you click on that, the plus icon in the top left corner gives you access to the items menu.

Choose the size you want and hit Add Widget to set it up in this panel on your iPhone.

Group Widgets into ‘stacks’

One of the big differences between iOS and Android is that you can organize a set of these items by ‘stacks’. In this way you will save enough space on the screen to make room for more apps. To do this, follow the same process as above, but check the ‘Smart Stack’ option.

  1. Leave your finger pressed on an empty area of the home screen or on the ‘Today’ screen
  2. Wait for the apps to move
  3. Again, press the ‘+’ button located in the upper left corner of your iPhone
  4. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and select Smart Stack.
  5. Click Add Widget

pilas widget

Done, now all the widgets that you host in this function will appear in a small window with a series of dots on the right . Swipe up and down or vice versa to switch between one or the other. You can stack up to 10 widgets this way.

If you want, you can also edit this ‘Widget Stack’. Do it by leaving your finger pressed on it and pressing the edit button. Now you will be able to alter their position in the list, deactivate the automatic change or eliminate any of them by sliding it to the left.

Edit a Widget

The rearrangement of the home screen is quite similar in iOS to what we are used to in Android.

To move a Widget , go to the screen where you want to place it and perform the previous step or drag it from screen to screen like any application, leaving your finger pressed on it for a few seconds

If what you want is to alter the information displayed on the screen, you must keep your finger pressed on it, as if you were going to move it, but you will have to press the edit button. This will allow you to edit the content of it until you exit it.

editar widget

It is also possible to alter the size of this software, following the same process.

  1. Press on the screen until the app icons move
  2. Press the add widget button
  3. Select the one you want to transform
  4. Slide your finger to choose the size you want
  5. Click on Add Widget

Delete a widget

The easiest of all is to remove Widgets from your Apple phone . You can do it the same way from the home screen or from the ‘Today’ panel of iOS.

  1. Leave your finger pressed on the widget you want to remove from the display
  2. Select Remove Widget.
  3. Choose Delete again to confirm the operation

Find new widgets

When you open the Widget s editing panel you will find a practical search engine where you must enter the term you want to find programs that work around it.

buscar widget

For example, if you want to locate software that allows you to view news on the screen, you would enter the text ‘news’ in the search bar at the top of the screen. Then you simply have to add it to any place on your iPhone as we have indicated before.

How to use them

As we have said, the operation of this software is not exactly the same as its Android counterparts. You can tap a particular widget to open the corresponding app and be redirected to whatever content the plugin displays.

If, for example, we are talking about one that shows weather information, you can click on a specific element of it to see it in the application and thus check the probability of rain or temperatures. Similarly, a music widget can display multiple albums, songs, or playback controls, but tapping on a particular album will redirect you to the Music app.