Apple’s iOS 14 brings the overhaul to a rather boring and identical iPhone home screen. Since its introduction in 2007, the iPhone home screen has carried the same grid of apps by default. Behavior changes with iOS 14 and you now have more options to customize the iPhone homepage with resizable widgets.
The widget functionality first came to iPhone with iOS 8 in 2014. But it was limited in various ways and was only accessible from the iOS Today View menu.
iOS 14 lets you add widgets to the home screen. You can also choose from a variety of widget sizes. The developer community is already working hard to get their apps ready with the latest widget trend for iPhone.
We’ve just entered the second week of iOS 14, and the App Store is overflowing with smart and functional widgets that deliver apps. We’ve selected twenty of the best widgets to add to the iPhone home screen. Of course, this is not an exact number and we may update or change some items in the future.
1. Apollo for Reddit
Apollo, a popular third-party app on the App Store, has nailed its widget app with the iOS 14 update. There are 10 widgets to choose from (yes, you read that right).
You can add a post widget, wallpaper widget, add shortcuts to the subreddit, or pin a random shower thought or joke on the home screen. There is something for everyone.
2. Weather Line
The default weather app on iPhone does a good job with widgets to show live temperature. WeatherLine takes the experience even further with Hourly and Daily Forecast widgets that offer more information like sunrise, sunset time, wind speed, AQI levels, UV Index and more.
3. Day One
Day One is my favorite journaling app. Today View supports tons of widget types and sizes with Daily Prompt and live stream. My favorite of the bunch is the ‘This Day’ widget, which displays thoughts from the same day last year.
Daily Prompt is also a nice plugin as it motivates you to add your thoughts.
4. Things 3
Things 3 has a strong fan base in the Apple ecosystem. The company has updated the app with iOS 14 widgets. You can choose from three widget sizes, Small, Medium, and Large. You can choose which list to show in the widget and use the + icon to add tasks to the list.
Unfortunately, due to iOS 14 limitation, you cannot complete tasks from the widget itself.
5. PDF Expert
PDF Expert could be your ultimate PDF app on iPhone. You can add a music widget to quickly access audio files, use the Recents widget to quickly open recent files, and Favorites to open device folders. If you use PDF Expert to edit PDFs on iPhone, you will definitely like the widgets.
6. Spark Post
Spark Mail is one of the best third-party email apps for iPhone. With the latest update, it gets even better with mail and calendar widgets.
You can have an email list widget with unread emails, incoming emails list, action buttons like Search, Calendar, Create mail and more. Spark Mail also supports a Calendar widget that displays upcoming events for the day or week. Spark knocked it out of the park with its widget app in iOS 14.
7. Google App
As an Android convertible, I’ve always wanted a Google search bar widget on the iPhone home screen. You can add Google Lens, Voice Search and Incognito mode and a Google search widget to the iPhone home page using the Google app. It looks much better than its Android counterpart.
8. Documentation
Documents by Readdle is an advanced file manager application on iPhone. You can manage all file types on your iPhone using Documents. Users can add offline music player widgets, recent files, favorites and even action button widgets that place music, browser and VPN shortcuts right on the home screen.
9. Soor Music
Soor is a beautiful premium music player for iPhone. It offers an intuitive, fully motion-oriented user interface with Musixmatch integration. With the iOS 14 update, you can use Soor app widgets to showcase the current song along with a few new songs in the queue. You can also access playlists and favorite music collection from the iPhone home screen.
10. Elitra
If you’re an RSS junkie, you’ll appreciate Elytra’s few iOS 14 widgets to showcase unread articles and unread counter widget on the home screen.
11. OneDrive
I’m asking Microsoft to improve OneDrive gallery support on iPhone. With iOS 14 widgets, Microsoft finally listened to the increasing user demand and added a few image widgets. I suspect there are more widgets in the pipeline for OneDrive. For now, OneDrive widgets are limited in the TestFlight app.
12. Lumi
Lumy is a beautiful app that helps you capture amazing visuals by letting you follow the Golden hour (also known as the Magic Hour). Around sunrise or sunset is a time when the light is usually soft, warm and perfect for capturing beautiful images.
Using Lumy, you can add the Golden Clock widget to the home screen with Sun’s current position and other information about the golden hour.
13. HabitMinder
Whether it’s yoga, running, swimming or calling parents, HabitMinder is a fun app that helps you build good habits. With a collection of more than five Home screen widgets, you should have a much better time tracking how well you’re following your routine.
14. Todoist
Todoist has been my recommendation to anyone looking for a robust cross-platform task management app. It gets even better with iOS 14. You have three Tasks widgets that let you keep track of daily to-dos, and a Productivity widget that shows your daily and weekly progress.
15. Dark Noise
Dark Noise is a simple yet powerful way to play ambient noise to help you sleep, focus or relax. You can create custom mixes for an endless variety of soundscapes. Using Dark Noise, you can add shortcuts to the default homepage for created sound effects like white noise, thunder, spaceship engine and more.
16. Relax – Mindful Breathing
Unwind is a refreshing, enjoyable and distraction-free mindful breathing companion that will aid you in meditation and help you get through the day. Relaxation widgets can now be added directly to your home screen to quickly take a look at your daily mindfulness progress. Widgets come in all sizes and are configurable.
17. The widgetist
Widgetsmith lets you customize your iPhone home screen like a pro. Using Widgetsmith you can create highly customizable widgets that function from date to weather. Each one can be adjusted to exactly fit the function and look you want.
This widget set can then be dynamically programmed to appear on your home screen according to rules you define. For example, a particular widget might show the weather first thing in the morning, then your calendar throughout your workday, then the Activity ring might move to your progress as you complete your day.
18. Aviary
Aviary is a beautiful Twitter client built with iOS design guidelines. Using the Aviary widgets, you can browse your Twitter feed directly from the home screen. I expect other third-party Twitter apps like TweetBot and Twitterrific to follow the lead.
19. Spending Pile
Spending Stack can be your budget manager, shopping list or expense tracker in one place. Using widgets, you can track subscriptions, remaining budget for a category, and all expenses on the home screen.
20. Wikipedia
Wikipedia’s iOS 14 widgets will increase your interest in the most read items. You can access and see live data of top read items throughout the day. The Picture of the Day widget is an elegant plugin with a stunning image curated by the Wikipedia community.
Add Useful Widgets to iPhone Home Screen
Using widgets, you can quickly browse related information without opening apps. We have tried to cover the main app categories in the list above. Expect to see many more iOS apps getting on the widget train in the App Store soon. What app widgets do you use on the iPhone home screen? Show off your perfect home screen setup. And we bet there are other apps that offer beautiful widgets, so share your favorites in the comments below.
Next: iPhone now supports picture-in-picture mode with the iOS 14 update. Read the post below to learn how to use picture in picture mode on iPhone.
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