iOS 14 Widget Wishlist
How I’d like to see widgets evolve in the iOS 14 Developer and Public Beta
The iOS home screen has been quite lackluster since the dawn of the iPhone, so this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference marks the first time that Apple is introducing major changes to the home screen layout. As of iOS 14, you’ll be able to drag widgets onto the home screen, creating a more dynamic landing page.
Currently, widgets only support a handful of Apple apps since iOS 14 is still in developer beta. However, there’s major potential for developers to create truly unique and useful widgets for their apps. In this short article, I want to talk about some improvements to widgets that I’d like to see in the Public Beta of iOS 14.
Settings
We all have some part of settings that we use frequently, and having a customizable widget for settings would be right in line with iOS 14 being about functionality.
I switch some of my wireless accessories between my Apple devices many times a day, and having a widget for quickly connecting the devices would be immensely useful.
A settings widget in the form of a stack could be useful too, letting you switch between Bluetooth-, WiFi-, and other settings in the same widget.
Multi-page Siri Suggestions
The current Siri Suggestions widget is okay, but there’s potential to make it great. There are three configurations of the widget; the 2x4 app suggestion widget, the 2x2 action suggestion, and the 2x4 action suggestion.
I don’t find the action suggestion widgets to be very useful, as they’re limited to one or two specific actions (among a sea of possible actions). The app suggestion widget is on the other hand fantastic and has its own place on my home screen. It makes my landing page dynamic.
I’d like to see more customization to the Siri Suggestions widget in the Public Beta, such as being able to get app suggestions in a 2x2 format or being able to scroll between two or more pages of app suggestions.
Safari bookmarks
Having the option to go directly to a specific bookmark from the home screen would save many small bits of time during the day. It could simply display my 4 most used bookmarks, as I usually find myself visiting the same few pages every day.
Handoff
Handoff is an incredibly useful feature that lets you pick up an activity on another device than what you started the task on. I find myself using Handoff when I, for example, want to read something on my iPad that I looked up on my MacBook Pro.
There are usually multiple ways to use Handoff at the same time, and having a widget on your home screen that displays them and lets you interact with them would be right in line with Apple’s push for Continuity.
Interactive widgets
Today, most widgets are read-only, which feels like a waste of potential. The Reminders widget is a good example of this. When tapping a task in the widget, it doesn’t check the task but rather takes you to the app so you can check it off there. I feel like this defeats the purpose of a Reminders widget, but I can see how it’s something Apple will most likely fix for the Public Beta. Another example could be the Weather widget, where I’d like to see the ability to scroll between saved locations.
Custom widgets
I’d love to see the ability to make custom widgets in the Shortcuts app. There are multiple workflows that I feel could be implemented directly on the home page, and being able to make my own widgets for the workflows I find most useful would be fantastic.
The Shortcuts widget makes this somewhat possible by displaying four shortcuts in the widget, but I still feel like it’s a bit too limiting to be as useful as it could be.
If you enjoyed this article, please give it a few 👏’s and comment with what you’d like to see in the iOS 14 Public Beta.
