What are your thoughts on widgets? Have they been useful?

[boogas8]

It’s funny because I was a person that wanted home screen widgets for the longest time. I used iOS14 beta and public release with widgets for weather, battery, and calendar. I got to the point where I didn’t like the added widgets to my home screen because it felt cluttered and I didn’t need to see them everyone k unlocked my pho’e, so I moved them back to the widget section (pre iOS 14). I find it more useful to swipe and peak at them when I need to. My home screen is back to apps only and then the App Library with swipe.

 

[lclev]

I do like the weather app and it is in a stack with my photos and calendar. I have yet to figure out how it picks what photo to show. But other than that I have no real need for widgets. I find the App library to be a complete waste of space. Until they make it more user friendly to edit I will just ignore it.

 

[boogas8]

I find the App library to be a complete waste of space. Until they make it more user friendly to edit I will just ignore it.

Agreed, the App Library needs work. I only use to find recently downloaded apps because I don’t have them automatically appear. I use search for most apps not on my Home Screen.

 

[C DM]

I still prefer widgets on their own dedicated page, which I can also access when the device is locked. I also still mostly prefer the "classic" pre-iOS 14 design widgets as well, at least for the ones I use, as they tend to update better and I guess I'm used to them more.

 

[Mr. Awesome]

I use the News widgets a lot. I have a stack of them on my Home Screen that I can swipe through to see my favorite topics (Apple, Disney Parks, etc.)

 

[Runs For Fun]

I love the widgets. I make heavy use of them and they are truly handy. I really wish you could move them around on iPadOS.

 

[gwhizkids]

I love the widgets. I make heavy use of them and they are truly handy. I really you could move them around on iPadOS.

This!

Smart stacks are almost always timely (calendar when an event is approaching, weather first thing in the morning and when something is going to happen, etc).

The Siri Suggested apps widget (2 medium widgets of 8 app slots for 16 total) nearly always has the app I’m looking for already teed up.

I wish they were more interactive, but I’m sure that will come. Same for updating frequency. These things are brand new and I suspect Apple wanted to work the kinks out before getting more adventurous. But I don’t see them stopping here and declaring victory.

 

[PeteBurgh]

I'm really enjoying widgets!

By far the best thing is having a big photos widget on my first screen. Whatever is going on algorithmically with the 'For You' selection works really well with my library - I'm frequently reminded about a fun, half-remembered event or holiday, or simply a nice photo I took. It's a big, positive change in how I interact with my photos.

Beyond that, Weather, Fantastical, Pedometer++, Apollo, and Reminders (I have two of these for two separate lists, work and personal) are all good. I'd love to have a bit more control over Smart Stack, and I'm waiting for a few apps to get widgets (e.g. Audible, Overcast). But in general, I think widgets have been a really positive change, and they'll have a bright future.

 

[PhillyGuy72]

A little bit, I admit I have to use more of them...look into them, basically just get used to them.
Ive seen layouts where one screen is simply widgets, scroll one page over and there are icons. I do like that look.

*ONE thing I do have to start using more are these shortcuts, automations. That I never played with in the year it's been out. I've seen some very cool tricks on YouTube automating these.

 

[MisterSavage]

I love the widgets. I make heavy use of them and they are truly handy. I really wish you could move them around on iPadOS.

This right here. It's bonkers that we have so much more screen real estate with the iPad and were forced to use a side are one page one for them. Let us use them like on iOS!

 

[Apple_Robert]

I like them. Using them saves me extra steps and several seconds each time I view.

 

[helloapple1]

I like my Fantastical and TickTick widgets because they're my most used apps. Makes it quicker to view content instead of having to open the app every time.

 

[Puonti]

I like widgets because of smart stacks and on-device Siri suggestions. I get information and actions surfaced per my natural schedule and I don't need to do anything extra or worry about privacy.

 

[martint235]

Love the App Library but not really found a use for widgets yet.

 

[dk001]

Minimally. They should give us app level function - a piece of it - without having to open the app
iOS widgets are still in their infancy with these latest changes. There are not many that work well. Even those don't live up to what they could do. I compare my iOS use to my Android use. Even on Android I only have a few I use and iOS has a ways to go to catch up.
Have to see just what 3rd party widgets become and what Apple allows in range of functionality.

Currently I liked the old Today 3rd party apps best for iOS. This new Home functionality seems to have set things back a bit in terms of function.

 

[tomtattoo]

I´m struggling with them. Changing my layout on homescreen every two days.
Tried all paid apps like widgetsmith, widgy, widgetopia and widget wizard.
The only sure decision is to put news in the old today view because there i could see 6 lines of news.
My wish for the future are 1x2 widgets. That would give me more options.
And: i would like the possibility to exclude apps from the menu when you choose a widget.
There are apps I will never use a widget from like podcast, screentime, files, notes etc.
The menu from choosing widgets is cluttering more and more.

 

[contacos]

I deleted most of them after I came to the conclusion that I don’t really spent much time looking at my Home Screen 😅 only the battery and weather widget are convenient for me

ALSO Apple really needs to rework how to set up the Home Screen now. Whenever I try to add another widget to my stack on the first screen. It ruins EVERYTHING on all of my pages and I need to move everything back and forth. It’s truly a mess. For example I don’t understand why you can’t turn your widget into wiggle mode > edit > and add ANY widget that are available. Why does it only show me the widgets that were previously selected on that stack? Makes no sense what so ever

 

[adrianlondon]

Readdle Calendars has a nice 4x2 (or 2x4 if you're a row-before-column person) widget that changes its headline colour to match the calendar colour of any live event. I use multiple calendars to organise my events and love this.

It's in a stack with a shortcuts widget (four shortcuts) and a weather widget from search.ch which is great for Swiss cities.

Also on my home page is a 2x2 widget stack showing the weather in various cities which interest me.

Second homepage has a 4x2 news widget at the top, and the third one has a 2x2 clock and 2x2 map widget at the top.
I like knocking all the app icons down two rows on my 11 screen

My Today View has a bunch of 2x2 Stocks widgets showing individual stock prices. They were dire at updating during most of the betas but are doing ok on 14.3. They seem to update each time I slide to the today screen. I also have a 2x2 Pedometer++ widget. Ditto.

So umm yeah, loving the widgets!

 

[LaynieGorilla]

I love them, very useful. I enjoy the weather apps, especially for tracking multiple locations at once, stocks , emails and news apps.

 

[posguy99]

I played with iOS 14 widgets briefly, they're useless and a waste of screen space. Went back to the couple of pre-iOS 14 widgets I had on the Today screen (weather / transit schedule) and moved on.

 

[ucfgrad93]

I use a fantasical and weather widget on my home page. Love having that info without having to open the apps.

 

[sparksd]

I don't care for them one way or another. I came over as a long-time Android user where widgets were long available and I didn't find I missed them. I prefer opening the apps.

 

[firedept]

Not a fan of widgets. I'm sure others will love it though.

 

[Hadron]

I still find them rather limited compared to Android, where there is greater flexibility in size and function of widgets (e.g. I always have a full screen scrollable agenda widget on my phones, which iOS can't do). Even more so since my iOS device is actually an iPadOS device, so iOS 14's placement options aren't available. Even so I do find them useful, and hope they will become more so as more apps catch up and (maybe!) Apple allow more flexibility and functionality.

I do find the "widget stacks" useful for giving access to widgets I'd only want occasionally without adding permanent clutter. That is a nice feature. "Smart stacks", on the other hand, I've not bothered with: I don't want the device to try to guess what information I want, I've played with such things and they always just annoy me (but there are presumably people who feel differently).

 

[ericg301]

I'm really enjoying widgets!

By far the best thing is having a big photos widget on my first screen. Whatever is going on algorithmically with the 'For You' selection works really well with my library - I'm frequently reminded about a fun, half-remembered event or holiday, or simply a nice photo I took. It's a big, positive change in how I interact with my photos.

Beyond that, Weather, Fantastical, Pedometer++, Apollo, and Reminders (I have two of these for two separate lists, work and personal) are all good. I'd love to have a bit more control over Smart Stack, and I'm waiting for a few apps to get widgets (e.g. Audible, Overcast). But in general, I think widgets have been a really positive change, and they'll have a bright future.

Marco said overcast isn’t going to get a widget because they’re not interactive. And he’s not wrong.