iOS 17: Revamp Your Home Screen With These Apps Featuring Interactive Widgets
iOS 17 #iOS17
Apple today released iOS 17 to the public after months of beta testing, which means the new operating system update is available to all iPhone users. iOS 17 makes widgets far more useful than before, adding a new interactive element that allows you to use them from the Lock Screen, Home Screen, or StandBy interface without having to open up an app.
We’ve rounded up a list of apps that take advantage of interactive widgets so you can update your widget workflow. Note that interactive widgets work on iPhone, iPad, and will even be accessible on the Mac when macOS Sonoma comes out thanks to new interconnectivity between the iOS and macOS.
WidgetSmith (Free, Premium Subscription)
WidgetSmith has several interactive widgets to choose from, including a series of photo galleries that you can tap to flip through your photos and multi-purpose widgets where you can tap between things like photos and step count, hiding useful information behind images.
The app also includes a Music widget for flipping through music albums and playlists, a weather widget for swiping through the upcoming weather forecast without having to open the app, a calendar widget so you can see the day’s upcoming events, and a number-adding tile game.
Spark Mail (Free, Premium Subscription)
Spark’s interactive widgets let users delete or mark emails as done to archive them without having to open up the Spark app. Spark will also have options to view emails directly from different categories (People, Priority, Newsletters, Notifications, and All Emails) in the Spark widget.
Spark is also gaining new Drag and Drop features on the iPad for adding attachments, and App Shortcuts for creating calendar events, opening a priority list, and more.
Sleep tracking app Rise has widgets that can be used for managing alarms and sleep sounds without opening up the app. The app also includes outdoor light exposure monitoring so you can see how light exposure affects sleep, and there is a dedicated iPad app.
Copilot (Free, Premium Subscription
Budgeting and money tracking app Copilot has added a Review Transactions widget that can be used to view and confirm all of your purchases without having to open the app. Copilot lets you track all of your spending and investments in one place.
Launcher (Free, Various Premium Unlocks)
App launching app Launcher has interactive folder widgets so you can nest several actions in one folder, accessing them with a tap without having to go into the Launcher app. There are also multi-contact widgets so you can do things like quickly contact a friend, and there are options for music controls.
Other Apps With Interactive Widgets
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Find an app with interactive widgets that we didn’t mention here? Let us know in the comments below.