iOS 14 brings a radical design change in Home Screen with widgets, App Library, and more. A handy part of your Today view, widgets can now be an interactive, data-rich & smart addition to your Home Screen.
Let’s explore some more about the feature and understand how to add widgets to Home Screen on iPhone in iOS 15/14.
- How to add widgets to Your iPhone home screen
- How to add stack widgets to your iPhone home screen
- How to a smart stack widget to Your iPhone home screen
- How to customize stack widgets on iPhone
The iOS 14 Home Screen widget will help you check the information at a glance. As of now, the Home Screen widget supports only Apple’s stock apps including Weather, Calendar, Music, News, Photos, Notes, Maps, Fitness, Reminders, Siri Suggestions, Shortcuts, App Suggestions, etc.
Although developers can also create app widgets to take advantage of the feature. And hopefully, we will have some amazing Home Screen widgets coming our way in some time.
How to add widgets to your iPhone home screen
- Long-press on the blank space of your Home Screen until the apps start wiggling or long-press on any app, tap on Edit Home Screen from the contextual menu
- Here, tap on “+” from the top-left corner of the screen
- From the Widget Gallery, select the widget of your choice to add.
- Now, swipe left/right to select the preferred size and tap on Add Widget.
- The widget will show up on your iPhone’s home screen, drag to reposition it.
Note: You can also add a widget from the gallery by holding, dragging, and dropping it directly to your Home Screen.
- Tap on Done from the top right corner to set your widget.
Along with a variety of apps, you also have an option to choose the widget size, small, medium, or large. Choose the size wisely, as the information density of the widget depends on that, here’s an example of the sizes –
Note: If you already have some stock app widget on the Today view, you can transfer the widgets from there as well. Just hold & drag the widget from the Today Screen to the Home Screen.
How to add stack widgets to your iPhone home screen
While playing with widgets is fun, it can end up taking a lot of your screen space. But what if we can stack them up to save space and swipe through them when needed. Sound’s nice right! You can create stacks of up to 10 widgets in iOS 14 or 15, here’s how:
- Open Widget Gallery & add one of the widgets, you wish to add in the stack on Home Screen
- Tap on “+”, hold & drag the other widget you wish to add, and drop it on the first widget to create the stack. Note: You can only add the same size widgets to the stack. So before you drag, & drop the widget select the right size
- Repeat the second step to add more widgets to the stack
Note: You can only add the same size widgets to the stack. So before you drag, & drop the widget select the right sizeAnd while this is pretty smart, how about a smarter stack, that’s intuitive and way more helpful.
How to add smart stack widget to your iPhone home screen
Apple has very intelligently incorporated a Smart Stack feature that uses on-device intelligence to present you with the right widget at the right time.
For instance, the News or Weather widget in the morning, Calendar during the day, and Maps one during your usual commuting time.
- Open Widget Gallery & tap on Smart Stack.
Note: Usually, you will find the option first in the Widget gallery, if not scroll down, and select Smart Stack from the listing.
- Select the size of the stack and tap on Add Widget.
- Drag it across the device to set it on the desired position and then tap on done.
And Tada! you will have a stack of important stock apps guiding, helping, and imparting data to you all day long.
But what if you want a customize the apps in the Smart Stack, thankfully, Apple has made that possible as well!
How to customize stack widgets on iPhone
You can edit the Stack widget to fit your needs perfectly. From the priority of the app to the data they lend you.
Add a New Widget to the Stack – Open Widget Gallery, drag and drop a similar-sized widget on to the stack.
Turn off Smart Rotation – If you don’t want your device to auto-shuffle the widgets depending upon your usage, then there is a simple way out. Long-press the Stack → Edit Stack → Toggle off Smart Rotate.
Re-arrange the Apps – Long-press the Stack widget and select Edit Stack from the contextual menu. Now hold and drag the three-line icon in front of the widget to the desired position.
Remove App from Stack Widget – Long-press the Stack widget → Edit Stack, swipe left and tap on delete. Another method is to scroll through the Stack, long-press when the widget is on the screen, and tap on Remove “name”.
Delete Stack Widgets – Long-press on the Stack and tap on Remove Stack from the contextual menu. Remember, you can use the same method to delete any widget from the iPhone Home Screen.
Video: How to add widgets to iPhone home screen in iOS 15/14
That’s all for now!
Great news for iPad owners, iPadOS 14 also supports the widget feature, including the Smart Stack feature. However, unlike the iPhone’s free reign over the Home Screen, widgets in the iPad are restricted to the Today View section.
Now, doesn’t all this sound so good! Trust us we have been experimenting with the feature since its launch and it is truly great addition to iOS 14.
You may also like to read:
- The Best iOS 14 Tips and Tricks
- iOS 14: How to Use WidgetSmith App on Your iPhone
- How to add a website to your iPhone Home Screen
- Best clock widgets for iPhone Home Screen
A self-professed Geek who loves to explore all things Apple. I thoroughly enjoy discovering new hacks, troubleshooting issues, and finding and reviewing the best products and apps currently available. My expertise also includes curating opinionated and honest editorials. If not this, you might find me surfing the web or listening to audiobooks.