iOS 16 brings support for adding widgets to your iPhone’s Lock Screen, and Widgetsmith is here to take this customization to the next level. Widgetsmith 4.0 is available now on the App Store not only with Lock Screen widgets but also improvements to the widget editor, a ton of new functionality for widgets, and much more.
Widgetsmith debuted back in 2020 alongside the release of Home Screen widgets in iOS 14. The app, created by David Smith, quickly went viral as TikTok users crowned it the best way to make your iPhone’s Home Screen “aesthetic af.” Since then, the app has received regular updates to even further improve its versatility for creating Home Screen widgets.
Now, Widgetsmith is tackling Apple’s latest customization feature: support for adding widgets to your iPhone’s Lock Screen. With iOS 16, you can add widgets to your Lock Screen as well as customize things like font colors, wallpapers, and more.
By default, Apple offers widgets for many of its stock applications. Just as it did with Home Screen widgets, Widgetsmith takes things to the next level. You can create an infinite number of custom widgets for your iPhone’s Lock Screen ranging from things like photos, weather, time, step counting, and much more.
There are three different sizes of Lock Screen widgets supported by iOS 16, and Widgetsmith has options for all three of them. You can make text widgets, which appear in the area directly above the time on your Lock Screen, as well as circular and rectangular options for below the time.
Widgetsmith also lets you fully customize any of the widgets you create. You can change the font, the colors of the text and icons, the designs for things like step counting and clocks, and much more. Just as we saw with Widgetsmith’s support for Home Screen customization, you can go wild here.
Today’s update to Widgetsmith also includes some changes that benefit Home Screen widgets as well. The widget editor has been redesigned to be more consistent and streamlined, making it easier to move between different settings and customization options.
Widgetsmith 4.0 also now integrates directly David Smith’s other apps, including Pedometer++, Wokouts++, CalZones, and more. These can all be automatically opened whenever you tap on a relevant widget. Additionally, you can now attach custom URLs to widgets.
These custom URLs can be attached to a widget so that every time you tap on that widget, it opens the URL. This addresses one of the biggest limitations of widgets, which is that tapping a widget can only take you to the app in which the widget was created.
Finally, Widgetsmith also now supports the ability to isolate the people in images from their background as well as importing images with transparency. This means you can add widgets to your Lock Screen or Home Screen that are just the subject of an image, without the original background. Smith explains:
You can now isolate the people shown in a photo widget, by removing the background. This allows for really cool effects when paired with a wallpaper that matches the background color of the widget.
Additionally, you can drag-and-drop images from other sources into Widgetsmith or load them from Files which include transparency and the background color of your widget will now show through.
The release notes for Widgetsmith 4.0 from the App Store:
- An improved widget editor to make widget creation and configuration simpler and more intuitive.
- Widgetsmith provides a wide array of lock screen widgets in all of the new styles.
- The ability to isolate the people in images from their background and import images with transparency.
- A robust set of new tools that which automatically launch within Widgetsmith whenever a widget is tapped. These are contextual to each widget. For example, tapping on a weather widget brings up the weather forecast for the selected location.
Widgetsmith is available on the App Store as a free download with in-app subscription of $1.99 monthly or $19.99 annually to unlock the full experience.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
