iOS 14 widgets are woeful

So anyone else finding iOS 14 widgets utterly woeful and useless? Seems to me we have another Apple feature that looks lovely and gorgeous but only seems to promote their own apps and actually delivers zero useful information… apart from looking good.

I wish I’d left my old glance screen apps alone and stayed on iOS 13 until this feature got properly implemented…. and as for the iPad widget implementation….

Conversation 11 comments

  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    10 October, 2020 - 5:28 am

    <p>Agree, Mine only started working after the 14.0.1 update</p>

  • j5

    Premium Member
    10 October, 2020 - 1:25 pm

    <p><img src="">They certainly aren't new and innovative. However, the ability to stack multiple widget I think is a very clever feature, not innovative just a feature for sure. I think you just have to be patient as more and more apps are pushing out widget compatibility. Honestly though the one I use the most are 2 Siri Suggestion widgets. I hardly even swipe to the right or swipe down app search anymore because it does such a good job of putting the apps I mostly and recently use right there. I have 2 other small widgets up top that have apps stacked in them but I hardly swipe through them. I just look at the weather and activity widget mostly.</p>

    • rsfarris

      12 October, 2020 - 11:31 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#585667">In reply to j5:</a></em></blockquote><p>I was going to post something similar, so I'll just second this. IMDB and The Weather Channel already have some–IMDB's is great but I couldn't get TWC's to work right. But stacks is easily the best part of the new widget feature; I'm not sure if I like the "smart" mode yet or if I'll want it fixed, but we'll see.</p>

  • winner

    10 October, 2020 - 2:15 pm

    <p>The home screen is pretty woeful as well.</p>

    • peterc

      Premium Member
      10 October, 2020 - 2:25 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#585673">In reply to Winner:</a></em></blockquote><p>And the fact you can’t pause or play your music from its widget is utterly ridiculous…</p>

      • rsfarris

        12 October, 2020 - 11:28 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#585674">In reply to peterc:</a></em></blockquote><p>I'm baffled about this as well. Why isn't this the first thing they did? I mean, you can do it from the lock screen I guess, but… still</p>

  • simmonm

    11 October, 2020 - 11:14 pm

    <p>I agree not super innovative, but iOS is a mature platform so there is so much you can do new each year.</p><p><br></p><p>There is an app call Scriptable, it lets you write javascript and run it under iOS. It has a widget and the different things I've seen people display with them is pretty impressive. You can see some examples at automators.fm. in their forums.</p><p><br></p>

  • Chris_Kez

    Premium Member
    12 October, 2020 - 9:27 am

    <p>I think iOS widgets are in a place right now where they'll make a lot of everyday users happy because of the basic customization possibilities ("make your home screen aesthetic AF", etc.), and they'll delight a few power users who are skilled enough with the Shortcuts app, Javascript, and leveraging API's to make deeply technical, hand-crafted widgets. As someone who sits between those two groups, I find myself somewhat disappointed with iOS widgets when I stop to think about them too much. I suspect we'll only see more apps support them, and in more interesting ways, and Apple will bring more features in iOS 15, and the virtuous cycle will spin again. </p>

  • davidlbangs

    Premium Member
    12 October, 2020 - 2:38 pm

    <p>So, you are judging Apple's own widgets? </p><p><br></p><p>There are some wonderful third party widgets. I find it quite refreshing to have a single widget in time, day, data, and battery aesthetically displayed with a family photo as the background. (Download "Color Widgets" ) Or to see news articles from many different sources, and videos I can watch. </p><p><br></p><p>IOS 14 is a total transformation of my iPhone experience. In one release , we 've gone from little circles with confusing numbers to full transparent information available at a glance.</p><p><br></p><p>Why is it Apple's job to make the best widgets? It is not. The best widgets are from third parties and many more will be released over time.</p>

  • ricky120

    13 October, 2020 - 9:41 am

    <p>How to transfer files from Android to Mac OS?</p><p>Recommend Mac apps to transfer files from Mac to Android easily? </p>

  • evox81

    Premium Member
    13 October, 2020 - 10:43 am

    <p>Thinking back to the early days of Android Widgets, they were pretty lackluster (or downright bad) too. But as the frameworks have matured and developers have gotten up to speed, there are a lot of really good widgets available. Once we're a few generations past the 1.0 release on iOS, especially as 3rd party developers improve their skills, I imagine the quality and the usefulness will improve dramatically. </p>

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