If there is one thing clear follow up Last week’s release of iOS 14, There has been a lot of pent-up demand for iPhone home screen widgets. a Variety of third-party applications It has added support for Home screen widgets for the past several days, but one app stands out from the rest: Widgetsmith.
Widgetsmith comes from David SmithIt is the developer behind many of the popular Apple Watch and iPhone apps Including a watchmakerAnd Sleep + +And and Pedometer + +. The concept of Widgetsmith is that it allows you to create custom and personalized widgets for your iOS 14 home screen; Here’s how it works.
Hands-on: Widgetsmith for iOS 14 home screen widgets
In the Widgetsmith app on your iPhone, there are three different widget sizes to choose from: Small, Medium, and Large. Each widget can display a variety of information and can be customized with different font styles and colors, tint colors, and background colors.
The process is incredibly straightforward. Simply click the “Add” button for the size of the gadget you want to create, then click the tool to customize it.
The first decision you have to make is what kind of information you want the widget to display on your home screen. Below are the data sources available on Widgetsmith:
- time
- History
- Custom: Image, Photo in Album, Custom Text, Blank
- Calendar
- remind
- weather
- Health and activity
- Tides
- Astronomy
Within each data type, there are a variety of different options for displaying any data type you choose. From there, you have additional customization options including font style, tint color, and background color. The result can be colorful and aesthetically pleasing or information-intensive to your liking.
Once you have designed the iOS 14 Home Screen widget in the Widgetsmith app, you can return to your home screen, long press to get to vibrate mode fully, and then tap the “+” icon in the upper left corner. Find Widgetsmith in the list of apps, then choose the size of the widget you created.
On your iOS 14 home screen, you can use as many widgetsmith widgets as you like. Once you have added the Widgetsmith size to your Home screen, long press, select “Edit Widget” and choose the “Widget” option to choose from the multiple designs that you have created in the Widgetsmith app. In fact, every widget on your iOS 14 home screen can come from Widgetsmith if you want.
Widgetsmith also supports timed widgets, which allow you to redeem the widget on your home screen at a specific time of day. For example, you can display the current date even after the business day is over, and then have Widgetsmith change widgets automatically to show you what’s on your calendar for the next day.
Going viral
Since I started working on this story last week, Widgetsmith has grown in popularity and topped the App Store lists. The customization and customization options in Widgetsmith are proving incredibly popular, which is testament to not only the power of Widgetsmith but also the pent-up demand for additional iOS Home screen customization options.
The app has gone viral on TikTok several times, with Widgetsmith being used as the basis for TikTok’s instructions on how to make iOS 14 home screen “Aesthetic AF”. In these TikTok videos, you can see just how powerful Widgetsmith is, and how creative iOS 14 users are with their homescreen designs.
My app for Widgetsmith is much simpler than the many viral TikTok videos, but this is a great testament to the app’s versatility. Whether you are looking to create a specific “aesthetic” for the iOS 14 Home Screen or to use it as a tool to add additional information to your Home Screen, it can check all the necessary boxes. Once again, there is support for scheduling specific widgets based on the time of day.
For me, one limitation is that iOS 14 gadgets will only launch the app it was built in. For example, you can use the Activity Rings widget from Widgetsmith, but it will open the data in the Widgetsmith app instead of the built-in iOS Fitness app. This is a limitation to iOS 14 itself rather than Widgetsmith specifically, but it’s something that I hope Apple will change in the future.
Widgetsmith is a file Free download from the App Store, With some server costing features that require an in-app subscription. The same subscription can be shared with Watchsmith, which is It allows you to give your Apple Watch face Same treatment as iOS 14 Home Screen.
Have you tried Widgetsmith on your iOS 14 Home Screen yet? What are your favorite designs? Let us know in the comments!
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