Universal Home Photo Widget - Place your own pictures on your Home Screen (Updated: Free photos layout)

[maka]

Home Photo Widget is an app I’ve quickly put together for myself and decided to release for free for anyone that might find it useful.

When Apple released iOS 14 I was expecting the Photos app to offer a customizable widget where I could choose exactly what picture to show. But it wasn’t the case... so I quickly learned about widgets and programmed it.

I know it’s simple and there are many features I want to add but I also wanted to put it out as quickly as possible. I’ll update it and of course, feedback is welcomed. I know the design is bad but well... I’m not a designer and I did this over a few hours... ??‍♂️

Anyway... it does what it says and it’s free, so... cheers!

(Edit: See last post for details on testing)

 

[maka]

I’ve updated the app to add some functionality, optimize ram usage and fix some problems. It’s still free to download.

 

[atmenterprises]

This fills a glaring omission from Apple's photo widget. Nice job!

 

[atmenterprises]

Some photos show up fine. Some are rotated even though they're portrait shots. Some are just gray and never show up.

I'm using it. Just needs a little more polish.

Also, found your Apple Music album. I enjoyed Memories so far!

 

[maka]

Thanks for the feedback. I wonder why the gray pictures. Maybe they’re in a different format? I’ve tested both portrait and landscape pictures and so far they’re working. I’ll test rotating manually and see if it makes a difference.

 

[atmenterprises]

Some photos show up fine. Some are rotated even though they're portrait shots. Some are just gray and never show up.

I'm using it. Just needs a little more polish.

Also, found your Apple Music album. I enjoyed the

Thanks for the feedback. I wonder why the gray pictures. Maybe they’re in a different format? I’ve tested both portrait and landscape pictures and so far they’re working. I’ll test rotating manually and see if it makes a difference.

Good question. They were all taken on the same iPhone. Not sure why one would show up and one wouldn't.

 

[maka]

Some photos show up fine. Some are rotated even though they're portrait shots. Some are just gray and never show up.

I'm using it. Just needs a little more polish.

Also, found your Apple Music album. I enjoyed the


Good question. They were all taken on the same iPhone. Not sure why one would show up and one wouldn't.

Do the pictures show the same on the app and on the widget? Or is it only on the widget that they show rotated or gray?

 

[atmenterprises]

Do the pictures show the same on the app and on the widget? Or is it only on the widget that they show rotated or gray?

They show up fine in the app. It's the widget that's the issue.

I figured out the common denominator. Pictures taken in "portrait" mode (the background is blurred) are grayed out in the widget. Ones taken in regular "photo" mode are not.

 

[maka]

Oh! My iPhone can’t take pictures in portrait mode... I’ll do some research and see if I can come up with a fix...

 

[maka]

Ok. I’m guessing it must be a memory issue. The widget is loading the full image and then resizing it to save ram, but widgets have a maximum ram they can use and the portrait mode picture in full size must be too big...

Now, for the rotated images I can’t reproduce it. I’ll keep trying

 

[maka]

I’ve posted an update. I think it should fix at least the grey widget issue. Thanks!

 

[atmenterprises]

I’ve posted an update. I think it should fix at least the grey widget issue. Thanks!

Awesome. I'm waiting for it to show the update in the App Store. Shared your app with someone else too who thought it filled a void left by Apple.

 

[maka]

I’m trying with huge pictures and it works. I can’t find a portrait mode photo to test. If you can send me one of anything, just as it is saved on the phone it’d be great: Maka at Makasoft dot net

 

[maka]

Looks like the update is going to be delayed because a crazy apple reviewer says I can’t have an ad to my music in the app...

 

[atmenterprises]

Looks like the update is going to be delayed because a crazy apple reviewer says I can’t have an ad to my music in the app...

Ha. Hopefully you'll get a different reviewer next time. I just sent you a portrait photo sample. See if that helps with your debugging.

 

[maka]

I had to make an appeal. They’re citing the guideline where you can’t direct users to an outside place to buy unlocks for your app outside of Apple. It’s ridiculous...

Thanks for the picture, I’m sure it’ll help!

 

[atmenterprises]

Looks like the update is going to be delayed because a crazy apple reviewer says I can’t have an ad to my music in the app...

So far on your album, I hear influences from The Beatles, The Doors and Bob Dylan. Good stuff.

 

[atmenterprises]

Looks like the update is going to be delayed because a crazy apple reviewer says I can’t have an ad to my music in the app...

Your update fixed everything! I had to remove and re-add the photos to the app but once I did, the rotation went away and my previous-grayed photos now show up!

Great job! Five star review coming!

 

[maka]

Thanks! I’m glad. I still have some people with the app crashing which I hope to fix for next release. I also have some other fixes for next update but I’ll post it when the new features are ready...

 

[maka]

I have an update coming which adds multi photo widgets (each photo has its own customizable duration) and also photos can have custom links to any url and I made an easy way to link to your own shortcuts from the Shortcuts app.

Anyone would like to test it? These features will be added as an IAP but I’ll give a copy of the final release to anyone that helps testing (up to a limit of course

 

[atmenterprises]

I'm not looking to test but will be glad to buy the IAP once released.

 

[maka]

I’ve updated the app to fix bugs and add some new features unlocked through a single IAP:

Multi photo widgets: choose a bunch of your pictures, set an order for them to appear and a time duration for each one.

Add custom links: you can set a custom url to open other apps through custom schemes, open web sites or your own shortcuts from the shortcuts app. Set widgets to call contacts, play music records, or anything you want.

 

[atmenterprises]

When I use the multi photo option, my pictures are grayed out. But they are the same pictures that worked in single photo mode.

 

[maka]

When I use the multi photo option, my pictures are grayed out. But they are the same pictures that worked in single photo mode.

Sorry about that. Does it happen for every picture? Is it ones imported with the last version? Did you try creating a gallery from only new pictures? Anyway, I’ll take a look and get back

 

[atmenterprises]

Sorry about that. Does it happen for every picture? Is it ones imported with the last version? Did you try creating a gallery from only new pictures? Anyway, I’ll take a look and get back

Every picture I've tried has been gray.

I am using ones from the last version.

It won't let me delete existing galleries. When I try, it just remains there like I never deleted it.

If I try to delete individual photos out of the gallery, it won't delete them either.

I added two new photos and tried to click on the multi photo tab at the bottom of the app and the app crashes. Deleted the widget, created it again and tried the multi photo tab and the app crashed again.