Why Apple Is Pushing Widgets Everywhere

[Music] Apple really wants you to use widgets all of the major Apple operating system updates coming this year are leaning more into widgets we're getting Apple watch widgets to flip through and widgets on your Mac desktop and sideways widgets when the iPhone is in standby mode but as a tech reporter I have a confession to make my name is Bridget and I don't widget I just

never cared about taking the time to set up widgets of course I know what widgets are it goes far back Beyond Android phones I was using widgets when we said Web 2.0 was the future I'm talking 2007. I was downloading news and weather widgets on a device called that shambi it was a smart home screen ahead of its time Apple had widgets before that even in

2005 on the fifth version of Mac OS it was named tiger there were many applications called widgets and it was part of the dashboard that was 18 years ago and even if you weren't on Mac there were Windows widgets remember Vista yeah they called them Gadget so I know widgets it ain't nothing new but why is Apple pushing hard on widgets now again more fine Apple

if you insist that widgets are going to be a thing this year I guess it's one more thing I'll have to poke around this week on my iPhone to see if it makes my life any better but will adding widgets to all of our screens really make Computing easier or just more cluttered maybe it depends how you widget I'm Bridget Carey and this is one more

thing at the WWDC keynote reveal earlier this month Apple gave us a lot of widget talk think of them as mini apps with information updated at a glance and it's going to be front and center of your iPhone Mac iPad and Apple watch but you'll have some control over how much it's in your face you'll start to see the new options appearing in operating system updates

that are rolling out later this year and there's going to be more interactive widgets in iPad OS 17 and iOS 17. so you can take action right from the home screen or lock screen just by tapping these little app previews instead of diving into the full app you're going to be able to control Smart Home devices pause music or check off items on your to-do list

that kind of thing the point is just to get something done quickly without loading the whole app of course the iPhone already has the option of widgets but there's going to be even more ways to widget iOS 17 is going to have a standby mode it'll show previews of information on the screen when it is sideways and plugged in like a smart home display on Mac

OS 14 Sonoma you can slap some widgets right on the desktop to get information at a glance assuming your desktop isn't already cluttered with documents and watch OS 10 has probably the biggest change routine the digital Crown is going to reveal widgets right on the watch face you can scroll to flip through these cards of information like your timers activity progress weather it also is smart

enough to show you information that's relevant to the time of day like medication reminders or upcoming meetings I am a simple woman who likes a simple home screen of my most used apps I also just never got around to trying ridges because it felt like homework and it would push my other app icons out of the way and not all apps I use have a widget

my work uses Microsoft Outlook and the widget for that is blocked so calendar would just become kind of useless but regardless I'm diving in y'all earlier this week I started adding a bunch of widgets to find what works and what doesn't I found it a bit quirky honestly and not all that intuitive always on the iPhone like why is it only showing me a limited number

of widgets if you press and hold your finger on a blank spot you're gonna get that little app jiggle that's when a plus sign is in the corner appearing for you to add a widget you're going to see some options along with a list of every app that you can add a widget for at least that's the idea I was not getting a true list of

every possible widget on my iPhone at first Duolingo was not showing up as an option and neither were a few other apps I knew had widgets like the call map as it turns out sometimes I had to open the app for it to jolt the system into showing it on the widget list go figure it's there now that's a lot of tinkering just to get a

widget to work I reached out to Apple for comment I hope that experience can be smoothed out in iOS 17. there are also different types of widgets sometimes a widget can only exist on The Today view that's the page when you swipe right and you have to hit customize your today view to find the extra ones and the lock screen it has its own different widgets

it's a lot to navigate so I need to talk to someone who is more of a mobile widget wizard like CNET senior editor Lisa edachika who just published a story about widgets after interviewing Apple's vice president of Technology Kevin Lynch and oh look look at that my widget is reminding me it's time to interview her now Lisa need to talk widgets absolutely let's do it why

is there such a push you think to have more widgets in all aspects of our Apple products so the idea behind these widgets is to just have all of these pieces of information kind of just living on your home screen kind of like being part of the operating system where you can just glance at your home screen and see if it's time to take your medication

or go to your next meeting without having to like open the app open the calendar open the health app on my watch I'm really just using it to like set alarms play music find my iPhone but why do you think apple is putting more of a focus on widgets at least in the watch too think about how tiny that screen is right if you want to

do something like set an alarm see when your next meeting is whatever you don't want to take too many Taps and swipes to find it if you're doing this more than two or three times when you're trying to do something I feel like that's a bad sign so with widgets the idea is to surface that information really easily with just a scroll up from your main

clock face just to access that information and one thing that I think is going to be really useful I haven't tested this yet but if you have a timer going that's going to be the first widget that you see when you scroll up because that's something that I use constantly I'm always setting timers and the problem is I never want to dig into my app list

and find the timer app to see how much time is left do you think by putting these widgets more on the Mac desktop we're going to be using our computers differently I think it could be very helpful but I also think for Apple consistency is a really important thing and having the experience look consistent whether you're using a Mac an iPhone or an Apple Watch is

something that I think they value a lot so having widgets that work across all three I think is important for that as well widgets are not new but do you think apple has a bit of a learning curve for its customers to get us using widgets I think a lot of people sometimes just keep doing the same thing they're used to doing absolutely I think Apple

you users in particular are probably and this is just my opinion they like the Comfort they like just doing the same thing they've been doing there might be a little bit of a learning curve you also don't have to use widgets so the people who do think it's too much of a learning curve don't need to use them do you use widgets and what do you

use I do I use the calendar widget and I use the weather widget because those are the two things that I really want to see when I look down at my home screen first and foremost and then over when I swipe over to the like today view like not my home screen but the screen that's adjacent to it I have like Photo memories and stuff like

that I maybe put too many widgets on my screen but guys I want to try everything with some advice for new widget people like me I think just think about what are the first things you do when you pick up your phone what are you usually going to check is it your calendar is it how many calories you need to burn to close your move ring

is it photos whatever those things are that's probably what belongs on your home screen all right thank you Lisa I look forward to going into this new widget world with you of course happy to help I can see widget cards making sense on an Apple Watch assuming it doesn't get in the way of just glancing at the time and assuming you'll have control of what shows

up on the screen if you want control I'm still testing out widgets on my phone to find the right fit I never remember to do Duolingo but this little bird sassy Square here is always in my face maybe that'll motivate me there is an app called streaks it has some nice visuals of checking off everyday task reminders maybe I'll use some apps more often if I

see them presented in a cool way but I feel like I'm relearning where things are and it's making me slower to get to my favorite apps maybe this will get more fulfilling in a week or so as I learn new habits let me know what widgets you find useful or how widgets have changed how you do some tasks is there an app that is good just

because of its widget are there apps that get the concept of a widget wrong did I make this episode just so I could rhyme Bridge it with Widget and how many times did I say widget share your thoughts below and I'll give you a status update next Friday on purchase widgets I mean I'm sure there will also be Apple news to talk about too which at