Can't re-position third party widgets in Today View?

[jigzaw]

This doesn't seem right, but I'm noticing that the third-party widgets are forced to the bottom of the Today View page and there is no way to move them. When I'm in Today View and I click "edit", only the Apple widgets wiggle and are moveable. The third-party widgets I have like Living Earth or Hue won't wiggle, can't be re-positioned and even the Apple widgets cannot be moved to below one of the third-party ones.

I'm on the XS Max. Is this a bug? Or is Apple basically hobbling third-party widgets and forcing their own widgets to the top of the page with no option to re-arrange?

 

[Paco II]

The Today View widgets will always live below the iOS 14 widgets, regardless of if they are third party or not. Third party iOS 14 widgets can be moved above Apple's iOS 14 widgets.

This doesn't seem right, but I'm noticing that the third-party widgets are forced to the bottom of the Today View page and there is no way to move them. When I'm in Today View and I click "edit", only the Apple widgets wiggle and are moveable. The third-party widgets I have like Living Earth or Hue won't wiggle, can't be re-positioned and even the Apple widgets cannot be moved to below one of the third-party ones.

I'm on the XS Max. Is this a bug? Or is Apple basically hobbling third-party widgets and forcing their own widgets to the top of the page with no option to re-arrange?

 

[jigzaw]

The Today View widgets will always live below the iOS 14 widgets, regardless of if they are third party or not. Third party iOS 14 widgets can be moved above Apple's iOS 14 widgets.

I'm positive that before iOS 14 I used to be able to put the Living Earth weather widget at the top of my Today View page, above the Apple Weather widget, and that isn't possible now. It's also not even possible to re-arrange the third-party widgets in relation to each other.

Am I just not understanding how 14 works? This seems like a bug to me. I just know that I used to be able to position the widgets in any order I wanted, and now that is no longer the case.

 

[Paco II]

With iOS 14 Apple has introduced new widgets. Let's call these the iOS 14 widgets as compared to the Today View widgets. iOS 14 widgets can live on Today View or on regular home screens. On the Today View screen they always live above the Today View widgets, regardless if they are from Apple or third parties. Apple has 'updated' their widgets to be iOS 14 widgets which is why you're seeing them at top.

I'm positive that before iOS 14 I used to be able to put the Living Earth weather widget at the top of my Today View page, above the Apple Weather widget, and that isn't possible now. It's also not even possible to re-arrange the third-party widgets in relation to each other.

Am I just not understanding how 14 works? This seems like a bug to me. I just know that I used to be able to position the widgets in any order I wanted, and now that is no longer the case.

 

[TheIntruder]

In iOS 14, the Today widgets can be re-positioned as before, but only relative to other Today widgets. They have been deprecated, and replaced by the new WidgetKit widgets that can be placed everywhere.

As a transitional move, the old Today widgets now live on their own layer, or "pen," so to speak. That becomes evident in editing mode, as the old widgets are contained within a darker shaded rectangle.

To reposition them, invoke the editing mode ("jiggle mode"), then scroll to the bottom of the layer, and tap Customize, which applies only to the Today widget layer. That will bring up the list-style editor as before.

But yes, it seems that the grouping of Today widgets must live at the bottom of the Today view, and can't be placed above any new style Widgets on that screen.

 

[jigzaw]

With iOS 14 Apple has introduced new widgets. Let's call these the iOS 14 widgets as compared to the Today View widgets. iOS 14 widgets can live on Today View or on regular home screens. On the Today View screen they always live above the Today View widgets, regardless if they are from Apple or third parties. Apple has 'updated' their widgets to be iOS 14 widgets which is why you're seeing them at top.

In iOS 14, the Today widgets can be re-positioned as before, but only relative to other Today widgets. They have been deprecated, and replaced by the new WidgetKit widgets that can be placed everywhere.

As a transitional move, the old Today widgets now live on their own layer, or "pen," so to speak. That becomes evident in editing mode, as the old widgets are contained within a darker shaded rectangle.

To reposition them, invoke the editing mode ("jiggle mode"), then scroll to the bottom of the layer, and tap Customize, which applies only to the Today widget layer. That will bring up the list-style editor as before.

But yes, it seems that the grouping of Today widgets must live at the bottom of the Today view, and can't be placed above any new style Widgets on that screen.

Thank you for these explanations. I just didn't understand that the widgets themselves have a new format that the third-party developers need to upgrade to to make them fully manipulable in iOS 14. Now it makes sense. Thanks!

 

[Rob S.]

In iOS 14, the Today widgets can be re-positioned as before, but only relative to other Today widgets. They have been deprecated, and replaced by the new WidgetKit widgets that can be placed everywhere.

As a transitional move, the old Today widgets now live on their own layer, or "pen," so to speak. That becomes evident in editing mode, as the old widgets are contained within a darker shaded rectangle.

To reposition them, invoke the editing mode ("jiggle mode"), then scroll to the bottom of the layer, and tap Customize, which applies only to the Today widget layer. That will bring up the list-style editor as before.

But yes, it seems that the grouping of Today widgets must live at the bottom of the Today view, and can't be placed above any new style Widgets on that screen.

And the question is, why not? Why do third party widgets have to live on their own layer? Surely Apple can implement a feature in a future update where you can reposition 3rd party widgets above iOS14 widgets on the today view page.

 

[Paco II]

And the question is, why not? Why do third party widgets have to live on their own layer? Surely Apple can implement a feature in a future update where you can reposition 3rd party widgets above iOS14 widgets on the today view page.

To be clear, it’s not third party vs iOS 14 widgets. It’s iOS 14 type widgets versus the traditional widgets. Plenty of third party iOS 14 widgets and likely plenty more coming. I think since the new widgets have less functionality than the new ones, Apple decided to keep the traditional one around for a while.

 

[TheIntruder]

And the question is, why not? Why do third party widgets have to live on their own layer? Surely Apple can implement a feature in a future update where you can reposition 3rd party widgets above iOS14 widgets on the today view page.

Apple is not going to invest effort in anything other than preserving a temporary space for them until the transition period expires.

It is only a matter of time before Apple removes them from a future iOS altogether. Hopefully, by that time, the new widgets will be better developed and more mature, on both Apple's and other developers' part.

 

[ZEEN0j]

And the question is, why not? Why do third party widgets have to live on their own layer? Surely Apple can implement a feature in a future update where you can reposition 3rd party widgets above iOS14 widgets on the today view page.

It’s a great incentive to push developers to update their apps. I’m sure Apple could do it if they wanted to

 

[Paco II]

It’s a great incentive to push developers to update their apps. I’m sure Apple could do it if they wanted to

Well, it’s a dilemma. The old widgets have much more functionality. In some cases, like with sports score apps, there is simply no way to recreate that with iOS 14 style widgets.

 

[ZEEN0j]

Well, it’s a dilemma. The old widgets have much more functionality. In some cases, like with sports score apps, there is simply no way to recreate that with iOS 14 style widgets.

Agreed. There is some loss in functionality with the new widgets. For me personally I’ve gained a lot more as I hardly used widgets in the sense of interacting with them. It was mostly for information. Now that I can stack them and an app can make multiple different sizes and configurations it has increased their functionality for me.