What’s The Best Widget App On Apple Products? 4 Free Apps You Should Try
This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s fall editorial intern Celeste MacMurray. Find her on Instagram at @clsmsanchezx. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
The best part of getting a new device or revamping the one you already have is customizing it. Phone color, phone cases and phone charms used to be the main way to do this in the era of flip phones as many Zillennials may remember. However, with the introduction of smartphones we now have more options than before. Home screens and lock screens became the main ways to outsource creativity, but ever since iOS14 came out newer options have been available. Widgets have become the newest way to customize your iPhones and iPads, and now with the release of iOS16, widgets can now be added to your lock screen.
Widgets work by accessing apps you have downloaded on your phone and presenting them in a miniature and compact manner on your home or lock screen. The purpose is to make it easier to access these apps and to have their information more readily available. Or, in a way not related to practicality, widgets can be used to simply look nice. While some widgets come from apps already equipped on your iPhone or iPad such as ones for your battery, calendar and clock app, there are others you can download for more options. These apps offer the ability to add highly customized and personal widgets to your screens, but it’s hard to know what’s the best widget app to use when there’s so many. After some research and experimentation, here are some of the best apps to use for widgets on your Apple products that are also free.
Photowidget
Like many widget apps, Photowidget offers you the ability to choose from their premade selections or to create your own. The app offers many options to choose from for both your home screen and lock screen. You may find that with the newest iOS update you can do a lot with your lock screen, and luckily Photowidget has many cute gifs you can place underneath your time display. Additionally, they have shortcuts for apps you can place on your lock screen such as Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube. Some of the custom home screen widgets they offer are photos to complement your aesthetic or unique calendars to match. In addition to this, Photowidget also offers unique themes with widgets, icons, a home screen and lock screen premade for you. If you want a widget that will display an album full of photos, you can create your own in the app and display them on your homescreen.
Widgetsmith
Similar to Photowidget, Widgetsmith immediately offers you the choice to create widgets for your home screen or lock screen. Your options for lock screen widgets are either text or circular widgets based on music, weather, time or symbols for decoration. The options for rectangular widgets are similar as you can choose from time, battery, date and even one for the moon phase. For home screen widgets, you have the option between small, medium or large ones for your photo albums, the date, time and even music. Widgetsmith may be hard to navigate at first, but to add your selected widget all you have to do is set it up in the app, then edit your home screen and choose the app you’re adding a widget from, select the size then add it to your home screen. After that all you have to do is press the widget, go into its settings and select the widget you chose or made in the app to display it.
EMMO
EMMO is an adorable app that allows you to track your daily moods and even create journal entries. The app offers a minimalist and bookish look when you open it, and each day you can choose a little character that describes your mood of the day. You can even rename it to describe the emotion better according to yourself, and below it you have the option to journal about your day. As for widgets, there are various sizes you can choose from to add to your home screen to make it easier to log your moods. The only downside of this app is that you may have to use a translator every now and then since some prompts in the app aren’t in English. Most of these sections are pretty intuitive, though, and you can probably guess pretty accurately what the prompt is saying without a translator. Regardless, it’s still a very cute and effective app when it comes to tracking your mood.
Do!
If you’re a person with a hectic schedule and no way to keep track of it all, Do! might be the app for you. The app offers you the ability to make check lists and to set reminders for yourself daily. You have the ability to add a widget with your to-do list on both your home and lock screen. The widget will display the to-do list you’ve created while also giving you the option to add to it if necessary. However, the app will display undone tasks as a badge notification on your app, so if that’s something that will bother you, it’s best to turn it off in your settings. Overall, the widget is very helpful for keeping up with tasks while also making it easy to update whenever necessary.
If you know all the tips and tracks for making the best themes with widgets, tell us what your favorite strategies and apps are down below! What’s the best widget app?