Will iOS 14 be the death of functional Widgets?

[Paco II]

iOS 14 widgets lack much (most?) of the functionality of the Today screen widgets. You can't interact with them like you can the Today screen ones. It's not hard to imagine that Apple will eventually kill off the Today screen widgets. Apple giveth and Apple taketh away I guess. Do you expect the new widgets to gain similar functionality eventually?

 

[Jessica Lares]

Yeah, some of it. They're just trying to keep as much control as they can this second time around, especially since it's the home screen.

 

[Paco II]

I am actually bummed by iOS 14 widgets. They are such a step back in terms of functionality. Sure it's nice to put them on the home screen, but they are so *static* now

 

[Celf]

For me a lot of widgets are nothing more than a big button. The displayed information is hardly usable (Timepage, both calendar and todo's in 1 widget) or a lot of space is used just to look good (Todoist. The 2 x 4 widget only shows 2 tasks)
Fuctionality of the widgets is very limited with almost no interaction. IOS widgets look better than most of the Android widgets. However, the Android widgets are often way more useful.
I was looking forward to use the iOS widgets, one day later i'm very disappointed.

 

[ignatius345]

The biggest thing I notice (er, the "smallest") is that text is TINY because everything has been shrunk down to fit into those dumb little rectangle boxes. The Stocks widget stands out to me as particularly bad.

The available options for Calendar also all suck pretty badly in terms of information density. There used to be a little graphical version of the current day you could view, similar to the way a single day looks in week view in the full Calendar app. That's gone, replaced by a simple list which doesn't show you at a glance exactly where you are in your day.

All in all, I'm pretty disappointed so far.

 

[jacg]

Now just a pretty shortcut to the app that takes the place of 3-15 other apps. Super dumb.

 

[darngooddesign]

The available options for Calendar also all suck pretty badly in terms of information density. There used to be a little graphical version of the current day you could view, similar to the way a single day looks in week view in the full Calendar app. That's gone, replaced by a simple list which doesn't show you at a glance exactly where you are in your day.

Try Fantastical; it has like 9 layout options in varying sizes. But even still it has lost its interactivity compared to the ios13 version.

 

[Paco II]

Not paying $40/year for a Calendar app.

Try Fantastical; it has like 9 layout options in varying sizes.

 

[adrianlondon]

Hopefully, as widgets are only a week or so old (ignoring the betas), Apple will gather feedback from random forums like this one, plus complaints/suggestions from app developers, and they'll evolve into something more useful as iOS 14 progresses.

 

[Canyda]

Not paying $40/year for a Calendar app.

For the basic functionality and widgets, it's free and the free widgets are much better than the default iOS calendar app.

I'm waiting to see when/if Google Calendar comes out with widgets.

 

[darngooddesign]

Not paying $40/year for a Calendar app.

Thats for the Premium version; the Basic version is still pretty great.

If everyone registers complaints on Apple's site, they may bring back some level of interactivity in the new widget framework.

 

[redbeard331]

Super disappointed as well, the today view widgets had interactivity if the dev built it into them, Including Apples own widgets. Reminders for one, plus they removed a bunch of widgets like Mail and favorites. There’s also the huge padding on all sides of them and they lost their translucency, the opaque look is a big step backwards.

I just don’t see much point to them when all they do is launch the app like the icon would.

 

[adrianlondon]

For the basic functionality and widgets, it's free and the free widgets are much better than the default iOS calendar app.

I'm waiting to see when/if Google Calendar comes out with widgets.

The main problem with any calendar widget that I've used so far, is that if you create a calendar event on another devicve, the widget will often not update to show it.

Worse, third party Calendar apps (I must point out I've not used Fantastical) don't often pick up the change at all until you open/run it, and hence won't fire off any notifications. The Apple Calendar app will do that at least (even if its own widget doesn't show anything).

 

[Canyda]

The main problem with any calendar widget that I've used so far, is that if you create a calendar event on another devicve, the widget will often not update to show it.

Worse, third party Calendar apps (I must point out I've not used Fantastical) don't often pick up the change at all until you open/run it, and hence won't fire off any notifications. The Apple Calendar app will do that at least (even if its own widget doesn't show anything).

That's all fair comment. I'm giving the Fantastical widgets a go because I've found they're what I'm looking for, but I admit I haven't been adding items to my calendar to see how the updating goes.

 

[adrianlondon]

That's all fair comment. I'm giving the Fantastical widgets a go because I've found they're what I'm looking for, but I admit I haven't been adding items to my calendar to see how the updating goes.

At the moment, I'm using Readdle Calendar (the free one), as their 4x2 widget changes colour to match the colour of the relevant calendar when an event goes live. I really like this, as I use different iCloud calendars, all different colours, for different types of events.

My current workaround is just to regularly open the Readdle app so that it updates and can send out notifications, and this often triggers their widget to update.

I'm going to give fantastical (the freebie version if it exists) a try. I can't have enough calendar widgets to try at the moment

 

[aenflex]

I agree. I feel like I need to be done complaining at this point because I’m getting tired of listening to myself. But yeah, these widgets are lame. And scant. Apple needs to add to and refine them.

 

[Canyda]

I agree. I feel like I need to be done complaining at this point because I’m getting tired of listening to myself. But yeah, these widgets are lame. And scant. Apple needs to add to and refine them.

There are lots of these little things that Apple does (or rather, does not do) that baffle me. Three random ones pop to mind:

There is no native Apple Mail widget.

There is no native Apple Notes for Apple Watch app.

There is no calculator on the iPad.

 

[Paco II]

What adds to my frustration is that not only did widgets lose interactivity, but they don't even refresh often (as has been mentioned). I was trying Spark's widgets, but what's the point if they update so infrequently. When I see an app badge but the widget says no new mail, there's really no point.

 

[Paco II]

I couldn't deal with all the upsell inside fantastical. The premium only features are a major tease. I have switched to Calendar 366 (one time purchase) and hopeful they will update with widgets soon.

That's all fair comment. I'm giving the Fantastical widgets a go because I've found they're what I'm looking for, but I admit I haven't been adding items to my calendar to see how the updating goes.