Widgets. If you’ve crossed over to the dark side (Android), then you should be familiar with them. For diehard Apple users, “widget” might sound like a made-up word. While I’m not entirely sure about the origin of the word, a widget gives you a small chunk of meaningful information at a glance.
People want to use widgets when they need to quickly access information and or view updates. For example, the iOS Weather widget shows only the temperature, weather, and chance of rain. It doesn’t try to show the weekly forecast or what temperature Honolulu is. The Weather widget shows only the most important information without having to open up the app. It’s like when you were a kid and you didn’t want to read Hamlet so you went straight for the Cliff Notes.
Widgets are highly customizable and many of your favorite apps have its own widgets. You can view your widgets by swiping right on the Home screen or Lock screen. If you can’t view your widget on the Lock screen follow these instructions below.
How to enable widgets on the lock screen
- Tap Settings
- Tap Touch ID & Passcode
- Enter your passcode
- Scroll down to “ALLOW ACCESS WHEN LOCK” and make sure Today View is toggled on.
How to add new widgets
- From the Home or Lock Screen, swipe right to get to the Today View.
- Scroll to the bottom and tap Edit
- The list shows all stock iOS widgets along with third-party widgets. To add a widget, tap the green + to add or the red – to remove.
- You can rearrange the order of your favorite widgets by holding the three small bars on the right and dragging it in the desired order
Five useful iOS stock widgets
1. Weather
Shows the temperature, weather, and chance of rain in the current city you are in. Tapping show more will display the hourly weather and temperature
2. Batteries
Shows the battery life of your iPhone and everything connected to it. For example, it will show the battery life of your AirPods or a connected Bluetooth speaker.
3. Favorites
Shows a list of your Favorites. Tap on the contact that will start a phone call with the selected contact. Tapping show more will reveal the entire list of Favorite contacts
4. Notes
Quickly view your most recent note. There are additional options to create a new note, create a new checklist, take a photo, or annotate a new note.
5. Stocks
Did you just invest in Bitcoin? So did everyone else in the world. You’re probably staring at your phone 500 times a day looking at the price of your investment. The Stocks widget will show the current price of your favorite stocks.
Make the most of your iPhone and use widgets! They are incredibly useful for quick access to information. Widgets were one of my favorite features about my Samsung Galaxy S6 and I’m glad Apple implemented them into iOS. Let us know below what your favorite widgets are!