Have you noticed any flashy and informative widgets on other users’ iPhone home screen recently on social media? No, it’s not flawless image editing. The iOS 14 update brought a new era of customization for iPhone users. Before iOS 14, personalization was limited to changing wallpapers, widgets in the Today View menu, and Control Center. Now you can add widgets to the home screen, change the widget size, replace standard app icons, and even create custom widgets with a new category of apps.
Since the introduction of the iOS 14 update on iPhone, we’ve seen users go crazy for customizing the home screen with matching widgets and app icons. The ability to change an app icon in iOS 14 is a tricky process and comes with a lot of limitations that detract from the entire experience. The widget implementation is spot on in iOS 14, however, and you will have a native experience to create and use on the iPhone home screen.
In the past few weeks we’ve noticed that a new category of apps is popping up in the App Store that will allow you to create custom and resizable widgets from scratch. If you’re wondering how to make one, you’ve come to the right place.
In this post, we are going to show you how to create beautiful widgets for iPhone. We use third party apps from the App Store and walk you step by step through adding all the elements to a widget. Let’s begin.
Create colorful widgets with color widgets
We are using two apps, Color Widgets and Widgetsmith, to create custom widgets on the iPhone. The former focuses on looks, while the latter involves using third-party app integration to create an informative, yet good-looking widget. Let’s start with color widgets first. Follow the steps below.
Step 1: Open the App Store and download the Color Widgets app.
Step 2: Open the app and on the home screen you will see ready-made medium sized iOS 14 widgets to choose from.
Step 3: Select the one you want and go to the Edit Widget menu.
Step 4: Here you can change the background color and choose between a light or dark color. Date, time and day color can be adjusted in the Theme menu.
Step 5: Scroll down to Font and choose from the range of fonts.
Step 6: Finally, you can either remove the default photo or add one from the device gallery.
Step 7: Click Set Widget, and now your widget is ready to land on the home screen.
Go back to the home screen and long tap any icon and tap the + icon in the top left corner. Look for Color Widgets and you will see your newly created widget in three sizes to add on the home screen.
A big limitation with Color Widgets is that you can’t add information from native apps like Apple Reminders, Calendar, and Apple Health. Color widgets also lack weather integration. To overcome these limitations, we are going to use Widgetsmith to create custom widgets.
Create iPhone widgets with Widgetsmith
Follow our step-by-step guide to create custom widgets on iPhone using Widgetsmith.
Step 1: Open the App Store and download the Widgetsmith app.
Step 2: Open the app and give the necessary permissions.
Step 3: Select the widget size you want to adjust.
Step 4: In the style menu, you can add information like the date, time, photo, calendar, weather, health activity, tide, and even astronomy.
Step 5: If the style you selected includes fonts, go to the Fonts menu and select your preferred font style.
Step 6: Add in the tint color, background color, and border color and you’re good to go.
The customization option varies depending on the widget style you choose. To the example, if you choose a photo widget, the following options will ask you to choose a photo, orientation, and other image-related options.
You can schedule this set of widgets to appear dynamically on your home screen and follow the rules you define. To the example, a particular widget might show the weather first thing in the morning, then switch your calendar during your work day, and then switch to your activity ring progress at the end of your day. Simply select “Add a timed Widget” and define a time window in which a widget is displayed at a specified time.
I recommend creating a bunch of widgets with Calendar, Reminders, Photos and Apple Health integrations on Widgetsmith and stacking them into a single widget. First, add all the widgets to the home screen and use drag and drop to stack widgets on top of each other.
Spice up the iPhone home screen with widgets
Customizing the iPhone’s home screen with widgets and app icons is a big deal with the iOS 14 update . Try these apps out and create a perfect widget to spice up your iPhone home screen. While you’re at it, don’t forget to show off your newly created widgets in the comments section below.
Next Up:
iOS 14 has a built-in picture-in-picture mode. Read the post below to know all about picture-in-picture mode on iPhone.
