How to Create Beautiful Widgets on iPhone

Have you recently noticed some eye-catching and informative widgets on the iPhone home screen of other users on social media? No, it’s not a perfect image editing. The iOS 14 update brought a new era of personalization for iPhone users. Prior to iOS 14, customization was limited to changing wallpapers, widgets in today’s View menu, and Control Center. Now you can add widgets to the Home screen, change the size of widgets, replace default app icons, and even create custom widgets with a new app category.

Since the introduction of the iOS 14 update on iPhone, we’ve seen users go crazy by personalizing the Home screen with matching widgets and app icons. The ability to change an app icon in iOS 14 is a tricky process and comes with a lot of limitations that take away the entire experience. However, the implementation of widgets is flawless in iOS 14 and you will have a native experience of creating and using them on the iPhone home screen.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve noticed a new category of apps emerging in the App Store that lets you create custom and resizable widgets from scratch. If you are wondering how to create one, you have come to the right place.

In this article, we will walk you through how to create awesome iPhone widgets. We will use third party apps from the App Store and walk you step by step to add all items to a widget. Let’s start.

Create colorful widgets using colored widgets

We will be using two apps, Color Widgets and Widgetsmith to create custom widgets on the iPhone. The former is laser-focused, while the latter is to use third-party app integration to create an informative yet engaging widget. Let’s start with the color widgets. Follow the steps below.

Step 1: Open the App Store and download the Color Widgets app.

Download color widgets

2nd step: Open the app and from the home screen you will notice a choice of mid-size iOS 14 widgets out of the box.

Step 3: Select the one you prefer and go to the Edit Widget menu.

Step 4: Here you can change the background color and choose between light or dark color. In the Theme menu, you can customize the date, time and color of the day.

Step 5: Scroll down to Font and select from the group of font styles.

Step 6: Finally, you can delete the default photo or add one from the device gallery.

Step 7: Tap on Set Widget, and now your widget is ready to land on the home screen.

Go back to the home screen and long press any icon and tap the + icon in the top left corner. Look for colored widgets and you will see your newly created widget in three sizes to add to the home screen.

A major limitation with Color Widgets is that you cannot add information from native apps like Apple Reminders, Calendar, and Apple Health. Color Widgets also lacks weather integration. To overcome these limitations, we’re going to use Widgetsmith to create custom widgets.

Create iPhone widgets using Widgetsmith

Follow our step-by-step guide to creating custom widgets on iPhone using Widgetsmith.

Step 1: Open the App Store and download the Widgetsmith app.

Download Widgetsmith

2nd step: Open the app and give the necessary permissions.

Step 3: Select the size of the widget to customize.

Step 4: The Style menu allows you to add information such as date, time, photo, calendar, weather, health activity, tides and even astronomy.

Step 5: If the selected style involves fonts, go to the font menu and select the preferred font style.

Step 6: Add a tint color, a background color, and a border color, and you’re good to go.

The customization option varies depending on the style of widget you choose. For example, if you go for a photo widget, the following options will ask you to choose a photo, alignment, and other image related options.

You can program this set of widgets to appear dynamically on your home screen and follow the rules you set. For example, a particular widget might show the weather first in the morning, then your calendar during your workday, then switch to your activity ring progress at the end of your day. Just select “Add Scheduled Widget” and set a time slot for a widget to appear at a set time.

I will recommend creating a bunch of widgets using Calendar, Reminders, Photos, and Apple Health integration on Widgetsmith and stacking them into a single widget. First, add all the widgets to the home screen and use drag and drop to stack the widgets on top of each other.

Spice up the iPhone home screen with widgets

Customizing the iPhone home screen with widgets and app icons is a big deal with the iOS 14 update. Go ahead, try these apps out and make a perfect widget to liven up your life. iPhone home screen. While you’re at it, don’t forget to show off your newly created widgets in the comments section below.