With the introduction of iOS 8, Apple added support for Widgets on the iPhone. But the implementation was half-baked and nowhere as good as on Android. For instance, there was no way to add widgets on the home screen, customize, or resize them. With iOS 14, Apple has finally made some much-needed improvements to widgets on the iPhone by allowing users to add, remove, customize them as per their liking. Here’s how.
Apple didn’t stop here. The company has implemented Smart Stack widgets that combine multiple widgets on the home screen and iOS Today View menu. However, you can’t interact with iPhone home screen widgets.
How to Add Widgets on iPhone’s Home Screen
There are a couple of ways to add widgets to the home screen on your iPhone in iOS 14. You can either add them from the ‘Edit Home Screen’ menu or from the Today View menu. Follow the steps below to add app widgets to your iPhone home screen in iOS 14.
Step 1: Unlock your iPhone and go to the home screen.
Step 2: Long press on any app icon and it will trigger the edit home screen view.
Step 3: Tap on the ‘+’ icon at the upper right corner.
Step 4: It will open the widget panel from the bottom with a search bar at the top and widgets with supported app names in the bottom scrolling menu.
Step 5: Tap on any app name or widget that you want to add on your iPhone’s home screen.
Step 6: The system will showcase the widget preview and it will ask you to choose from the different widget sizes available. You can select either Small, Medium, or a Large widget.
Step 7: Tap on the Add Widget button at the bottom to add it to your home screen.
You can add the widget to any part of the home screen and the icons will make room for it.
Add Widgets from the Today View to iPhone’s Home Screen
Apple allows you to add widgets to the home screen using the Today View menu too. Go through the steps below to add widgets to the home screen from the Today View menu.
Step 1: Swipe left from the home screen to the Today View menu.
Step 2: Long-tap on any widget and drag that widget to the home screen.
How to Customize Widgets on iPhone’s Home Screen
As I mentioned, you can’t interact with iOS 14 widgets. The widgets are strictly meant for quickly glancing at app information. Apple offers a couple of ways to customize widgets in iOS 14. You can either change the widget size or edit the widget information.
Long tap on a widget and choose the Edit Widget button. For example, you can long tap on the weather widget and change the current location. Long tap on the Reminders widget and select another to-do list to display. Unfortunately, you can’t change the widget size from the Edit Widget menu. You have to remove the current widget and then add a new one with a different size. Speaking of removing widget, let’s learn how to remove widget in iOS.
How to Remove Widgets from Your iPhone’s Home Screen
It’s identical to removing apps on the iPhone. Just long-press on the widget that you want to remove and select the Remove Widget option. When you add a widget to the iPhone home screen, iOS will make space for the widget and move around the icons. When you remove that added widget, the app icon placement will revert to the original layout.
What Is Smart Stack Widgets?
The widget functionality in iOS 14 doesn’t end here. Apple has added ‘Smart Stack’ on the iPhone. So what exactly is Smart Stack widgets and how does it work in iOS 14? As the name suggests, Smart Stack widgets will let you stack widgets on top of each other and showcase them as one widget on the home screen. You can then swipe up or down on the widget to cycle through them. Follow the steps below to add them.
Step 1: On the home screen, long-press on an empty screen or on an app icon.
Step 2: You will see an editable home screen with the ability to remove icons.
Step 3: Tap on the ‘+’ icon at the upper left corner.
Step 4: It will open the widget panel from the bottom and you will see the Smart Stack widget on top.
Step 5: Select Add Widget at the bottom and add it to the home screen.
Swipe up/down on the widget stack to go through them. You can long-press on any Stack Widget and select Remove Widget to remove it from the list.
To change the widget’s position in a stack, long tap on the Smart Stack, and select Edit Stack. You will see the list of apps for the Stack widgets. Users can drag the app’s location up and down. You can also remove an app widget from the Stack. Just swipe left and choose Delete.
Why is it called Smart then? Based on the time of the day, iOS 14 smartly changes the widgets for you. For example, it will showcase Maps widget in the morning to display the office route, Calendar in the noon for meetings, and Health widget at night for the number of steps for the day. Smart Stack saves space on the home screen and serves the purpose.
As of now, widgets support on the iPhone’s home screen in iOS 14 is limited to first-party apps. The first set of third-party app widgets will show up around the time Apple releases iOS 14 to the public. If you have installed the iOS 14 beta profile on your iPhone, then you can continue using third-party app widgets in the Today View. However, you won’t be able to resize, customize, or add it to your iPhone’s home screen.
Widget support on the iPhone home screen is just the tip of the iOS 14 iceberg. Don’t forget to check out the 100+ new iOS 14 features for iPhone that we have discovered so far. Have you installed the iOS 14 beta on your primary device? How’s your experience so far? Sound off in the comments section below.
Learn how to use the cool new iOS 14 features with our step-by-step guide:
iPhone users are loving the ability to create their own icons in iOS 14. Here’s how to customize your smartphone’s home screen and mix them with long-awaited widgets.
With iOS 14, you can finally get creative with your iPhone home screen.
For 13 years, the iOS home screen has featured rows of rounded square app icons, but with last week’s mobile OS upgrade, Apple takes a page from Android to allow apps of various shapes and sizes wherever you want them. People are going nuts with custom looks for their apps and widgets; just check out the #ios14homescreen hashtag on Twitter.
One user, for example, used MS Paint to produce amusingly amateur-looking icons. The secret here is the Shortcuts app. Read on to find out how to upgrade your iOS home screen.
Custom Icons for Your iPhone
Open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone and tap the plus sign (+) in the upper-right corner of the screen, which takes you to the New Shortcut page. Choose Add Action.
Tap on the Scripting icon. (If you’re tempted to click on Apps, you’ll only see actions created by the app maker, such as starting a tweet, rather than just opening the app.) Tap on Open App, then select the three-dot menu icon at the top right to show Details. Choose Add to Home Screen. Tap on the lower, smaller icon next to the name of your new shortcut (New Shortcut is the default name; tap the circled X to rename it).
Here we get to the meat of the tip: the mini Edit Icon menu lets you choose a file, a photo from your camera roll, or snap a picture with the iPhone’s camera to replace the icon. Tap Add to Home Screen and tap the icon next to your shortcut under Home Screen Name and Icon. In the pop-up window that appears, select File, Photo, or Take Photo. You can crop an image to customize what will show, but happily, the image needn’t be square or a specific size.
Tap Add > Done. You can see my new icons in the screenshot, the last two on the home page, for Acrobat and AccuWeather. (I used Windows 10’s Paint 3D for the Acrobat icon).
Note that, while this is a fun, personality-injecting activity, using Shortcuts with custom icon images has drawbacks. You don’t go directly to the app as you do with the app’s default app. Instead, the action first opens the Shortcuts app, which then shunts you to the app you want.
Also, you lose any long-press menu options the official icon provides. For example, the WhatsApp icon offers starting a chat or taking a picture on a long tap. The only option with the custom icon is to delete it (it’s called a Bookmark in this menu rather than an App) or to edit the home page.
Widgets in iOS 14
While the custom icons are a fun exercise, I’m far more excited by widgets on the home screen. iOS has offered widgets for a while, accessible by swiping left to right on the home page, but the home page itself could only contain icons. With iOS 14, that changes: you can now place big widgets for a clock, the weather, maps, or stock prices right on the home pages.
Related
- 7 Cool Features to Try in iOS 14
- 15 Imaginative iOS 14 Home Screen Customizations
- How to Change Your Default Browser and Mail Apps in iOS 14
- Accessibility for Everyone: How to Use Back Tap on Your iPhone in iOS 14
Adding a widget to a home page is dead simple. Long-tap on the home page, then tap the plus sign (+) button at the top left. Select the widget you want. You can then scroll through whatever size and design choices the app developer has offered by swiping to the right.
To make a selection, hit the big blue Add Widget bar along the bottom of the screen. You may have to allow privacy information the app widget requires. That’s it! Enjoy your new widget.
Most of the options are now Apple services, though as developers update their apps, you should get a lot more in the coming days. Google has updated its widgets to the new style, as have DuckDuckGo and Night Sky.
A good way around this, though, is to scroll down to the section of old-style third-party widgets, where the page stays in the same position next time you swipe to it. The pre-iOS 14 widget-only page is still there behind a left swipe, but these widgets are in the new redesigned, round-cornered shapes—at least the first-party ones are, until third-party developers recode their apps.
After years of looking at the same grid of icons, it’s time to finally customize your iPhone to your heart’s content. Add some cool-looking custom widgets, and replace your apps with custom icons, just for a good measure.
Starting in iOS 14, Apple brought support for third-party widgets on the home screen. And while Apple won’t let you change app icons as Android does, you can use the Shortcuts app to create, well, shortcuts for apps using custom icons. In fact, this feature works for all iPhones running iOS 12 and higher.
Combine these two and you get some really impressive results. Just search for “#ios14homescreen” on Twitter to see some inspiring home screen setups. Everything from a Harry Potter theme, to Animal Crossing theme has been tried out. And not to mention, a retro iOS 6 theme.
The beauty of this system is that you don’t need to go that far. Just add some widgets and change a couple of app icons, if you like.
Create Your Own Customized Widgets
What we’re looking at here is a rethinking of how the iOS home screen works. After all, it’s changing for the first time in 13 years. You can use widgets to build that foundation, and add icons around the widgets.
Many third-party apps, especially productivity apps, have their own widgets. After upgrading to iOS 14 or higher, go to the widgets page to see new widgets for apps that you already use.
Press and hold in an empty part of the iPhone home screen and select the “+” button. Here, you’ll see all of the apps that support widgets.
Next, you should download apps for creating customized widgets. While you’ll find many apps on the App Store to do this, we would recommend you try Widgetsmith and Widgeridoo. Once you download the apps, read our step-by-step guide for creating custom widgets.
Widgetsmith is great for creating simple, template-based widgets. You can add calendar, reminders, weather, battery, date, and photo widgets to the iPhone home screen (in small, medium, and large sizes).
Pick a widget, a style, and customize attributes like the background color, font, tint color, borders, and more.
Power users will appreciate the complexity of the Widgeridoo app. It’s a block-based widget builder. Using Widgeridoo, you can have different data or information in different blocks, all in the same widget.
For example, you can create a single widget that shows you the battery percentage, step count, distance traveled, the date, and more.
While Widgeridoo is quite extensible, it’s a bit tricky to use. So, we would suggest you get started by customizing one of the prebuilt widgets. Widgeridoo lets you preview the widgets for free, but to add widgets to the home screen, you’ll have to pay for the $3.99 in-app purchase.
Create Custom App Icons
Once you have the widgets nailed down, it’s time to customize those app icons. To do this, all you need is an image file (square and around 512 x 512 resolution) and the Shortcuts app.
Because this is not an official method, there is one downside. When you tap on a custom app icon, it will first launch the Shortcuts app, for a second, then it will open the app. Yes, it is an annoyance, but it might just be worth it.
You can do this in two ways. You can either create the app icon image yourself (using any image you find online), or you can download premade icon sets (individual icons from Google Images, Iconscout, or Iconfinder).
Next, transfer them to your iPhone. You can add them to the Photos app or the Files app.
Now comes the hard part. But, don’t worry, it’s going to be worth it! As we mentioned at the top of the article, you’ll have to use the Shortcuts app to create shortcuts with custom images and names to open particular apps.
It’s quite simple to do. Create a new shortcut, and use the “Open App” action from the “Scripting” section to select an app.
Then, add the shortcut to your iPhone’s home screen. In this step, tap the shortcut icon to select your custom icon.
Once the app icon is added to your home screen, switch it out by moving the original app to the App Library. You can repeat this process to create more custom app icons. To speed up the process, tap and hold a shortcut, and select the “Duplicate” option.
For detailed steps, read our guide on how to use custom app icons on iPhone.
iOS 14 allows users to personalize their iPhones with widgets and iPhone App Icon customization. There are free as well as paid designs that can be used to change icons using the Shortcuts app.
iPhone app icon customization is another great way that iOS 14 allows users to personalize their devices. While iPhone icons have always looked sleek, you can now make your own iPhone app icons or download an app to change your icons. The iPhone Shortcuts app allows users to create a custom aesthetic for their Home Screen without payng for a third-party app. It allows custom images to be used as icons that then function as a shortcut to the corresponding app in the App Library. Find out how to change app icons on iPhone with Shortcuts in a few simple steps.
What’s in This Article:
- How to Change an App Icon by Creating One in Shortcuts
- How to Hide the App in the App Library Once You’ve Created a New App Icon for It
- Where to Find & Download iPhone App Icons
- Design and Create Your Own App Icons
How to Change an App Icon by Creating One in Shortcuts
- Open the Shortcuts app.
- Tap on the + icon located on the top right of the main app screen.
How to Hide the App in the App Library
Creating a custom iPhone icon using the Shortcuts app doesn’t replace the original app icon on your Home Screen, so you’ll need to hide the original app to avoid seeing it.
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- Long press on the app icon you want to hide until a menu appears.
This will remove the app icon from your Home Screen by moving it to the App Library. Moving an app to the App Library doesn’t delete it, it simply stores it away from the Home Screen.
Where to Find & Download iPhone App Icons
With so many options out there, it can be hard to pick the right custom iPhone app icon design. It is possible to download free iPhone app icons, but you can also purchase premium packs online. Icons 8 is a great website that offers a wide selection of free icons with a specific section for iOS-friendly designs. Both Iconscout and Flaticon also have some free packs for Apple products.
For a more creative selection, a quick search on Pinterest can find you various free and paid collections. The great thing about searching on Pinterest is that it shows some of the best icons from different stores and websites, such as this free watercolor set (pictured above) that you can download via Freepik. Finally, Etsy is a great place to find packs of icons ranging under ten dollars depending on the seller. Sometimes they are even paired with great screensavers and more to create a cohesive theme. Once you download iPhone icons, they’ll be stored in your Photos and you can add them using the Shortcuts app.
Design & Create Your Own App Icons
The ability to make your own iPhone icons is exciting, but can be a little daunting. There are many ways to create your own designs. The old-school way is to hand draw the icons, then scan the art or simply take a photo of the drawing directly via the Shortcuts app. Another option is to create a design using software such as Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator if you’re familiar with those applications. But for those who are neither talented in fine arts nor proficient in computer design, the Canva app is the way to go.
Screenshots above are from the Canva app
Canva uses simple drag-and-drop features that enable everyday people to create and download professional-looking designs. Canva has a free app version, plus a free 30-day trial for the Pro subscription. The Canva Pro subscription costs $12.99 when paid monthly, if you decide to keep it after your trial (I did; I use it for all kinds of design work and find it incredibly useful). It is a great tool to create any sort of design, and even the free version comes with templates, stamps, and plenty of pre-designed images to suit your needs. You can either begin designing from scratch or choose from the many existing designs.
Once you get the hang of it, your iPhone can look as unique as you do.
iOS 14 brought the ability to add widgets to the iPhone’s Home screen. We’ve seen loads of apps taking advantage of this with amazing widgets that are just incredible to use. But did you also know that you could build your own custom widgets from scratch?
There are are several third-party apps on the App Store that provide the means to do that. In this post, we shall take a closer look at three of the best — Widgetsmith, Color Widgets, and Widgeridoo.
1. Widgetsmith
Widgetsmith is inarguably the best custom iOS 14 widget creation app that you can get your hands onto right now. While it does look rather complicated (and uninspiring) at first glance, it’s quite easy to get used to and comes with loads of options and tweaks to build and fine tune custom widgets. Widgetsmith also sports a number ‘style’ templates that include the following:
- Weather
- Calendar
- Time
- Date
- Reminders
- Battery
- Health & Activity
- Astronomy
- Tides
- Photos
All of the styles listed above are free to use, except for Weather and Tides that require a monthly or yearly Widgetsmith Premium subscription ($1.99/month or $19.99/year).
That said, let’s check out how you can use the app to build a custom widget from scratch.
Download: Widgetsmith
Step 1: Open Widgetsmith. Switch to the Widgets tab and pick a widget size — small, medium, or large. Once you do that, you will see the default Calendar widget style. Tap on it, and then tap on it again on the preview screen.
Step 2: Pick a style — Weather, Time, Health & Activity, etc. For example, let’s say that you select the Time template. It’s then a simple matter of going through the customization options below — Location, Background Color, Time Format, etc. They are quite intuitive and you should be able to breeze through them quickly.
Step 3: Once you’ve finished customizing the widget, head back to the preview screen, and then tap Save. You can then repeatedly add and customize multiple widgets for each size category. Once you’re done, exit Widgetsmith.
Step 4: Open the widgets gallery on your iPhone (enter jiggle mode and tap the ‘+‘ icon to the upper left of the screen). Select Widgetsmith, pick a widget size, and then tap Add Widget.
Step 5: To switch between custom widgets of the same size, simply long-press a Widgetsmith widget once it’s on the Home screen, and then tap Edit Widget. You can then pick the exact widget that you want.
2. Color Widgets
As its name implies, Color Widgets comes filled with an assortment of colorful widget templates. They aren’t as sophisticated as the ones from Widgetsmith. However, Color Widgets makes it much easier to customize them.
Almost all widget templates include a nifty battery indicator as well as the time and date, except for those in the Calendars and Analog Clock categories. Some of the fancier widgets also require you to upgrade to the Color Widgets PRO version, which costs $3.99.
Everything about Color Widgets reeks of simplicity, but let’s check it out in action regardless.
Step 1: Open Color Widgets. You can then immediately pick a pre-made template. Once you do that, tap Edit Widget.
Step 2: Use the options within the Customize screen to change the background color of the widget. Alternatively, you can add your own background image. You can also change the font type.
Swipe through the preview area to the top of the screen to check out how the widget looks in each size — small, medium, and large. Once you are satisfied, tap Set Widget.
That will add the widget to the top of the Color Widgets main screen, where you can then either edit or delete it any time you want. Any additional widgets that you pick and edit will show up there as well.
Step 3: Use the Home screen to add a Color Widgets widget to the Home screen. If you have multiple custom widgets, you must long-press the Color Widgets widget and select Edit Widget to pick the exact widget that you want to be displayed.
3. Widgeridoo
Widgeridoo provides a fresh take on widget creation with the introduction of ‘blocks.’ Each block can display a specific type of information such as images, music, calendar events, health data, JSON URLs, and so on. The app lets you stack multiple blocks into a single widget. This means that you can have your favorite music album, upcoming birthday events, and a Reddit feed all in one place should you want to!
Widgeridoo comes in at a cost of $3.99. However, it lets you build and add a single widget for free, which is quite nice since you can first try the app to see if it’s a good fit for you.
Download: Widgeridoo
The app comes with several pre-made templates related to health and calendar events. You can either edit them or tap the + icon to the bottom of the screen to start creating a fresh widget from scratch.
While editing or creating a widget, tap + to add a new block — you can then pick the exact block that you want to include, be it Music, Image, or Battery Percentage. You can then tap a block to customize it by changing the font, background colors, background images, and so on.
Once you are done, add a Widgeridoo widget to the Home screen. To select the exact custom widget that you want, long-press the widget, and then tap Edit Widget.
Go Crazy
With Widgetsmith, Color Widgets, and Widgeridoo, you can build amazing custom widgets for your iPhone. Throw in some custom app icons to the mix, add a wallpaper that goes along with everything, and you could have a Home screen like never before!
With the introduction of iOS 8, Apple added support for Widgets on the iPhone. But the implementation was half-baked and nowhere as good as on Android. For instance, there was no way to add widgets on the home screen, customize, or resize them. With iOS 14, Apple has finally made some much-needed improvements to widgets on the iPhone by allowing users to add, remove, customize them as per their liking. Here’s how.
Apple didn’t stop here. The company has implemented Smart Stack widgets that combine multiple widgets on the home screen and iOS Today View menu. However, you can’t interact with iPhone home screen widgets.
How to Add Widgets on iPhone’s Home Screen
There are a couple of ways to add widgets to the home screen on your iPhone in iOS 14. You can either add them from the ‘Edit Home Screen’ menu or from the Today View menu. Follow the steps below to add app widgets to your iPhone home screen in iOS 14.
Step 1: Unlock your iPhone and go to the home screen.
Step 2: Long press on any app icon and it will trigger the edit home screen view.
Step 3: Tap on the ‘+’ icon at the upper right corner.
Step 4: It will open the widget panel from the bottom with a search bar at the top and widgets with supported app names in the bottom scrolling menu.
Step 5: Tap on any app name or widget that you want to add on your iPhone’s home screen.
Step 6: The system will showcase the widget preview and it will ask you to choose from the different widget sizes available. You can select either Small, Medium, or a Large widget.
Step 7: Tap on the Add Widget button at the bottom to add it to your home screen.
You can add the widget to any part of the home screen and the icons will make room for it.
Add Widgets from the Today View to iPhone’s Home Screen
Apple allows you to add widgets to the home screen using the Today View menu too. Go through the steps below to add widgets to the home screen from the Today View menu.
Step 1: Swipe left from the home screen to the Today View menu.
Step 2: Long-tap on any widget and drag that widget to the home screen.
How to Customize Widgets on iPhone’s Home Screen
As I mentioned, you can’t interact with iOS 14 widgets. The widgets are strictly meant for quickly glancing at app information. Apple offers a couple of ways to customize widgets in iOS 14. You can either change the widget size or edit the widget information.
Long tap on a widget and choose the Edit Widget button. For example, you can long tap on the weather widget and change the current location. Long tap on the Reminders widget and select another to-do list to display. Unfortunately, you can’t change the widget size from the Edit Widget menu. You have to remove the current widget and then add a new one with a different size. Speaking of removing widget, let’s learn how to remove widget in iOS.
How to Remove Widgets from Your iPhone’s Home Screen
It’s identical to removing apps on the iPhone. Just long-press on the widget that you want to remove and select the Remove Widget option. When you add a widget to the iPhone home screen, iOS will make space for the widget and move around the icons. When you remove that added widget, the app icon placement will revert to the original layout.
What Is Smart Stack Widgets?
The widget functionality in iOS 14 doesn’t end here. Apple has added ‘Smart Stack’ on the iPhone. So what exactly is Smart Stack widgets and how does it work in iOS 14? As the name suggests, Smart Stack widgets will let you stack widgets on top of each other and showcase them as one widget on the home screen. You can then swipe up or down on the widget to cycle through them. Follow the steps below to add them.
Step 1: On the home screen, long-press on an empty screen or on an app icon.
Step 2: You will see an editable home screen with the ability to remove icons.
Step 3: Tap on the ‘+’ icon at the upper left corner.
Step 4: It will open the widget panel from the bottom and you will see the Smart Stack widget on top.
Step 5: Select Add Widget at the bottom and add it to the home screen.
Swipe up/down on the widget stack to go through them. You can long-press on any Stack Widget and select Remove Widget to remove it from the list.
To change the widget’s position in a stack, long tap on the Smart Stack, and select Edit Stack. You will see the list of apps for the Stack widgets. Users can drag the app’s location up and down. You can also remove an app widget from the Stack. Just swipe left and choose Delete.
Why is it called Smart then? Based on the time of the day, iOS 14 smartly changes the widgets for you. For example, it will showcase Maps widget in the morning to display the office route, Calendar in the noon for meetings, and Health widget at night for the number of steps for the day. Smart Stack saves space on the home screen and serves the purpose.
As of now, widgets support on the iPhone’s home screen in iOS 14 is limited to first-party apps. The first set of third-party app widgets will show up around the time Apple releases iOS 14 to the public. If you have installed the iOS 14 beta profile on your iPhone, then you can continue using third-party app widgets in the Today View. However, you won’t be able to resize, customize, or add it to your iPhone’s home screen.
Widget support on the iPhone home screen is just the tip of the iOS 14 iceberg. Don’t forget to check out the 100+ new iOS 14 features for iPhone that we have discovered so far. Have you installed the iOS 14 beta on your primary device? How’s your experience so far? Sound off in the comments section below.
Learn how to use the cool new iOS 14 features with our step-by-step guide:
iOS 14 allows users to personalize their iPhones with widgets and iPhone App Icon customization. There are free as well as paid designs that can be used to change icons using the Shortcuts app.
iPhone app icon customization is another great way that iOS 14 allows users to personalize their devices. While iPhone icons have always looked sleek, you can now make your own iPhone app icons or download an app to change your icons. The iPhone Shortcuts app allows users to create a custom aesthetic for their Home Screen without payng for a third-party app. It allows custom images to be used as icons that then function as a shortcut to the corresponding app in the App Library. Find out how to change app icons on iPhone with Shortcuts in a few simple steps.
What’s in This Article:
- How to Change an App Icon by Creating One in Shortcuts
- How to Hide the App in the App Library Once You’ve Created a New App Icon for It
- Where to Find & Download iPhone App Icons
- Design and Create Your Own App Icons
How to Change an App Icon by Creating One in Shortcuts
- Open the Shortcuts app.
- Tap on the + icon located on the top right of the main app screen.
How to Hide the App in the App Library
Creating a custom iPhone icon using the Shortcuts app doesn’t replace the original app icon on your Home Screen, so you’ll need to hide the original app to avoid seeing it.
Sign up to iPhone Life’s Tip of the Day Newsletter and we’ll send you a tip each day to save time and get the most out of your iPhone or iPad.
- Long press on the app icon you want to hide until a menu appears.
This will remove the app icon from your Home Screen by moving it to the App Library. Moving an app to the App Library doesn’t delete it, it simply stores it away from the Home Screen.
Where to Find & Download iPhone App Icons
With so many options out there, it can be hard to pick the right custom iPhone app icon design. It is possible to download free iPhone app icons, but you can also purchase premium packs online. Icons 8 is a great website that offers a wide selection of free icons with a specific section for iOS-friendly designs. Both Iconscout and Flaticon also have some free packs for Apple products.
For a more creative selection, a quick search on Pinterest can find you various free and paid collections. The great thing about searching on Pinterest is that it shows some of the best icons from different stores and websites, such as this free watercolor set (pictured above) that you can download via Freepik. Finally, Etsy is a great place to find packs of icons ranging under ten dollars depending on the seller. Sometimes they are even paired with great screensavers and more to create a cohesive theme. Once you download iPhone icons, they’ll be stored in your Photos and you can add them using the Shortcuts app.
Design & Create Your Own App Icons
The ability to make your own iPhone icons is exciting, but can be a little daunting. There are many ways to create your own designs. The old-school way is to hand draw the icons, then scan the art or simply take a photo of the drawing directly via the Shortcuts app. Another option is to create a design using software such as Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator if you’re familiar with those applications. But for those who are neither talented in fine arts nor proficient in computer design, the Canva app is the way to go.
Screenshots above are from the Canva app
Canva uses simple drag-and-drop features that enable everyday people to create and download professional-looking designs. Canva has a free app version, plus a free 30-day trial for the Pro subscription. The Canva Pro subscription costs $12.99 when paid monthly, if you decide to keep it after your trial (I did; I use it for all kinds of design work and find it incredibly useful). It is a great tool to create any sort of design, and even the free version comes with templates, stamps, and plenty of pre-designed images to suit your needs. You can either begin designing from scratch or choose from the many existing designs.
Once you get the hang of it, your iPhone can look as unique as you do.
If you’ve been enjoying the iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 feature for adding widgets to your Home Screen, then maybe you want to take that a step further. Among apps with Home Screen widgets are apps that let you customize your own widgets!
You can create your own Home Screen widgets and have them look exactly as you like. This gives you even more flexibility than you probably expected for personalizing your device. Here’s how to create custom Home Screen widgets on iPhone and iPad and tools you can use.
Make your own Home Screen widgets
You can find apps for creating and customizing widgets on the App Store. And more are sure to pop up over time. But to get you started, here are a couple apps you can check out and how to use them.
Widget Wizard
With Widget Wizard, you simply select the data you want to use, choose your fonts and colors, and your widget collection is ready for your pick!
Tap the Settings tab in the Widget Wizard app to customize a light or dark theme. You can select the accents, primary, secondary, and background colors. And you’re not just picking from common colors here. You can use the grid, spectrum, or sliders to get the exact color, shade, and opacity for you.
Then for fonts, you can choose the weight for headers, primary, and secondary text.
You can pick from Agenda, Health, Countdown, Calendar, or general Reminders. Select from widgets that include details from one category or a double, triple, or quadruple widget. After you add a widget, tap and hold to Edit it, like showing more, less, or different details.
When you tap an item on a widget, for example, your step count, you’ll head right to that area of the Widget Wizard app for those specific details. This lets you add things like events, reminders, and health data right from Widget Wizard.
If you want to create a widget for your Home Screen with the details that are important to you and an appearance that fits your style, Widget Wizard is a great choice.
Widgetsmith
While Widgetsmith is similar to Widget Wizard, it’s different in the process you use the create your Home Screen widgets.
Open the app and then select from a small, medium, or large size widget. Next, choose the data you want to use. This can be everything from photos to reminders to astronomy to calendar with plenty of specifics in each. For instance, you can choose from sunrise and sunset or moon phases for astronomy.
Move straight down the list for the widget and choose the font style, tint color, and background color. Save your creation and optionally give it a name.
Then head to your Home Screen and add the small, medium, or large widget you created. Tap and hold to edit the widget.
Widgetsmith also offers a really neat feature where you can Add a Timed Widget. With this, you can create another widget that replaces your original one at a certain time and for a certain time. This is a fun way to swap out the widgets you need at different times throughout the day because it’s fully customizable.
You can also create a widget that is simply text you want, include specific pictures from the Photos app, and get a snapshot of your Health data. Widgetsmith is a terrific app for creating the perfect widget for your Home Screen.
Widgetsmith is free for iPhone and iPad with paid subscription options that unlock additional tools like weather and tides.
Other custom widget apps
Here are a few more apps available for creating widgets you might like:
- Color Widgets (Free with in-app purchases)
- Widgeridoo (Free with in-app purchases)
- Glimpse 2 (Free with in-app purchases)
Wrapping it up
We hope to bring you more apps like these for creating and customizing widgets as they become available. But for now, these are two terrific apps for custom Home Screen widgets that you’ll like.
Are you going to give one of these apps a try and create the coolest widget for your device? Or maybe you’ve beat us to it and already use one? Let us know below!
Thanks to the iOS 14 update, you can’t only add Widgets to the home screen; you can also create custom widgets on your iPhone.
iPhone home screen used to be a not customizable thing with a fixed look, but now if you got the iOS 14 update, you can now put virtually anything on your home screen. And thanks to third-party apps, you can actually create your own widgets.
Let’s see how to create custom widgets on your iPhone with third-party apps.
How to create custom widgets on your iPhone?
On this guide, we will see how to create custom widgets with the “Widgetsmith” app.
Widgetsmith is a simple app that offers a couple of templates that you can customize. It lets you create widgets for display time, date, calendar, reminders, weather, health stats, tides, astronomy, and photos.
The app is free but Weather and tides sections are part of the paid $1.99/month subscription.
- Open the Widgetsmith app and go to Settings > Permissions.
- Grant permissions for features that you want to use (Reminders, Calendar, or Photos app).
- Go to the “My Widgets” tab and tap the “Add (Size) Widget” for the size of the widget you want to create.
How to create custom widgets on your iPhone?
- Tap the widget preview.
- In the “Style” tab, you can see all the different styles for date widgets. Pick a style here. We’re going with the “Day & Date” option.
- Now, tap the “Font” option. We’re going with “SF Mono” here to give the widget a retro look.
- Next up, go to the “Tint Color” section, and choose an accent colour.
- Go to the “Background Color” section. The default option is Black. You can stick to it if you are using an OLED iPhone with a pure black background. It will make your widget look like it’s floating on the screen. For this example, we’re going with the 90 percent option.
- Hit the Back button and rename the widget so that it’s recognizable.
- Tap the “Save” button to save the name and then select “Save” once more to save the widget. The widget is now created.
How to add the widget to the home screen?
To add the widget, go to your iPhone’s home screen and press and hold on an empty part of the screen to enter Jiggle mode. Here, tap the “+” button in the top-left corner.
- Select the Widgetsmith app from the list of widgets.
- Now, scroll over to the Medium widget and tap the “Add Widget” button.
- As this was the most recently-created widget, you should see the Red Date widget here. If it’s not, you can tap on the widget for options.
- choose the “Widget” option.
- From the list, select the custom widget you just created.
iOS 14 brought the ability to add widgets to the iPhone’s Home screen. We’ve seen loads of apps taking advantage of this with amazing widgets that are just incredible to use. But did you also know that you could build your own custom widgets from scratch?
There are are several third-party apps on the App Store that provide the means to do that. In this post, we shall take a closer look at three of the best — Widgetsmith, Color Widgets, and Widgeridoo.
1. Widgetsmith
Widgetsmith is inarguably the best custom iOS 14 widget creation app that you can get your hands onto right now. While it does look rather complicated (and uninspiring) at first glance, it’s quite easy to get used to and comes with loads of options and tweaks to build and fine tune custom widgets. Widgetsmith also sports a number ‘style’ templates that include the following:
- Weather
- Calendar
- Time
- Date
- Reminders
- Battery
- Health & Activity
- Astronomy
- Tides
- Photos
All of the styles listed above are free to use, except for Weather and Tides that require a monthly or yearly Widgetsmith Premium subscription ($1.99/month or $19.99/year).
That said, let’s check out how you can use the app to build a custom widget from scratch.
Download: Widgetsmith
Step 1: Open Widgetsmith. Switch to the Widgets tab and pick a widget size — small, medium, or large. Once you do that, you will see the default Calendar widget style. Tap on it, and then tap on it again on the preview screen.
Step 2: Pick a style — Weather, Time, Health & Activity, etc. For example, let’s say that you select the Time template. It’s then a simple matter of going through the customization options below — Location, Background Color, Time Format, etc. They are quite intuitive and you should be able to breeze through them quickly.
Step 3: Once you’ve finished customizing the widget, head back to the preview screen, and then tap Save. You can then repeatedly add and customize multiple widgets for each size category. Once you’re done, exit Widgetsmith.
Step 4: Open the widgets gallery on your iPhone (enter jiggle mode and tap the ‘+‘ icon to the upper left of the screen). Select Widgetsmith, pick a widget size, and then tap Add Widget.
Step 5: To switch between custom widgets of the same size, simply long-press a Widgetsmith widget once it’s on the Home screen, and then tap Edit Widget. You can then pick the exact widget that you want.
2. Color Widgets
As its name implies, Color Widgets comes filled with an assortment of colorful widget templates. They aren’t as sophisticated as the ones from Widgetsmith. However, Color Widgets makes it much easier to customize them.
Almost all widget templates include a nifty battery indicator as well as the time and date, except for those in the Calendars and Analog Clock categories. Some of the fancier widgets also require you to upgrade to the Color Widgets PRO version, which costs $3.99.
Everything about Color Widgets reeks of simplicity, but let’s check it out in action regardless.
Step 1: Open Color Widgets. You can then immediately pick a pre-made template. Once you do that, tap Edit Widget.
Step 2: Use the options within the Customize screen to change the background color of the widget. Alternatively, you can add your own background image. You can also change the font type.
Swipe through the preview area to the top of the screen to check out how the widget looks in each size — small, medium, and large. Once you are satisfied, tap Set Widget.
That will add the widget to the top of the Color Widgets main screen, where you can then either edit or delete it any time you want. Any additional widgets that you pick and edit will show up there as well.
Step 3: Use the Home screen to add a Color Widgets widget to the Home screen. If you have multiple custom widgets, you must long-press the Color Widgets widget and select Edit Widget to pick the exact widget that you want to be displayed.
3. Widgeridoo
Widgeridoo provides a fresh take on widget creation with the introduction of ‘blocks.’ Each block can display a specific type of information such as images, music, calendar events, health data, JSON URLs, and so on. The app lets you stack multiple blocks into a single widget. This means that you can have your favorite music album, upcoming birthday events, and a Reddit feed all in one place should you want to!
Widgeridoo comes in at a cost of $3.99. However, it lets you build and add a single widget for free, which is quite nice since you can first try the app to see if it’s a good fit for you.
Download: Widgeridoo
The app comes with several pre-made templates related to health and calendar events. You can either edit them or tap the + icon to the bottom of the screen to start creating a fresh widget from scratch.
While editing or creating a widget, tap + to add a new block — you can then pick the exact block that you want to include, be it Music, Image, or Battery Percentage. You can then tap a block to customize it by changing the font, background colors, background images, and so on.
Once you are done, add a Widgeridoo widget to the Home screen. To select the exact custom widget that you want, long-press the widget, and then tap Edit Widget.
Go Crazy
With Widgetsmith, Color Widgets, and Widgeridoo, you can build amazing custom widgets for your iPhone. Throw in some custom app icons to the mix, add a wallpaper that goes along with everything, and you could have a Home screen like never before!
