Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile

How to use widgets in iPadOS 15

Tyler Lacoma
By

If you’ve been looking forward to downloading iPadOS 15, there’s one particular feature that shouldn’t escape notice: The ability to add more widgets — tools and mini-apps — and customize them for the iPad home screen. iPhones have been quite widget-friendly for a while, but this is the first time iPads have supported full widget integration, allowing for very flexible, useful setups depending on how you like your iPad.

To help out, we’ll walk you through exactly how to add and customize widgets on both the Home Screen and the Today View Screen.

Recommended Videos

Add one of Apple’s native widgets to your Home Screen

Step 1: Download iPadOS 15. This is a basic step, but very important. It’s a good idea to plug your iPad into power first and close any open apps before you begin. iPadOS 15 is not a lengthy download, but it’s smart to play it safe. When you log back into your Home Screen, you will notice that iPadOS has automatically added several widgets to the top. However, these basic widgets may not be what you are interested in, or may not be in a position you like. Let’s do some personalization!

iPad Widgets Home Screen showing the Plus Sign.

Step 2: Touch and hold an empty space on your Home Screen. It can be anywhere, as long as you are touching the background instead of the app. Your apps will all start wiggling now. Look in the upper left corner of the screen and you will see a Plus icon. Select it.

iPad's widget list in iPadOS 15.

Step 3: Apple will now give you a list of native widgets to add to the Home Screen. Let’s say you want to add Apple News. Select it, and you will see the widget with six dots underneath. Swipe right on the widget to go through six different sizes to choose from, based on how large you want the widget to be and how much information you want it to show (different widgets will have different size options). When you find a size you like, select the Add Widget button to continue.

Adding Apple News Widget to iPad Home Screen.

Step 4: The widget will now appear on your Home Screen. However, there’s a final issue — you may not want any of the previous widgets to show up, and you may want the new widget in a different spot. Again press on the Home Screen background to make the apps jiggle, then press and hold on your new widget: Use your finger to drag the widget wherever you want it.

Moving a widget on the iPad Home Screen.

You’ll also notice that the widget all have Minus signs in their upper left corners. Select the Minus sign will allow you to remove unwanted widgets and clear up some space. This will not delete the app itself, only its widget.

Add widgets to the Today View screen

Apple’s native and supported widgets are great on the Home Screen, but you can also add widgets to the Today View screen, a space devoted to widgets and tools where you can see a whole lot of customized information all at once. Here’s what to do.

Step 1: Swipe right on your iPad Home Screen until you see Today View. If you haven’t used this screen before, it problem contains a few basic widgets for battery life, news, and so on. Press and hold down on a non-widget area of the screen until the jiggle starts, and select the Plus sign in the upper left corner.

Step 2: You can now go through the list of widgets, or (if you have a lot of apps), choose to search for a particular app and see if it has a widget. Since there’s a lot more room on the Today View, it’s a better spot for larger third-party widgets with more information.

If there’s a third-party app you wish had a widget, make sure that the app is updated and that you are logged in, then check Apple’s widget list to see if it is there. Generally, most widgets will perform their best if they have at least been updated for iPadOS 14.

Choosing Flipboard for the Today View screen.

Step 3: Let’s say you want to add the Flipboard app to your Today View. Select it from the list, and choose the size you prefer (again, this is a great place for larger sizes). When finished, choose Add Widget.

Step 4: You can now press and hold on the widget and move it wherever you want in the Today view list. As before, you can also choose the Minus sign on any widget to remove it. Add and place widgets until a scroll through the Today View provides all the information that you want!

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Tyler Lacoma
Tyler Lacoma
Contributor
If it can be streamed, voice-activated, made better with an app, or beaten by mashing buttons, Tyler's into it. When he's not…
iPhone Lockdown Mode: how to use the security feature (and why you should)
Lockdown mode for iPhone

Apple takes pride in selling a promise of privacy to its customers, and to a large extent, it lives up to that promise. As cyber criminals devise new ways to target phones, with tools as sophisticated and virtually undetectable as the Pegasus spyware, Apple also keeps fortifying its devices.

One step in that direction is Lockdown Mode, an “extreme” safety measure that was introduced with iOS 16 last year. The feature blocks a lot of vectors through which a zero-click, zero-day spyware like Pegasus finds its way inside a phone. From phone calls and message attachments to shared albums and network profiles, Lockdown Mode limits those risk routes.

Read more
iPhone 15 rumored to steal another big iPhone 14 Pro feature
Someone holding the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

The more we hear about it, the more that the base iPhone 15 is sounding like another version of the iPhone 14 Pro. A new leak posted to Chinese social media site Weibo claims that the iPhone 15 and the iPhone 15 Plus will both feature frosted glass on their backs — giving them a look similar to the most recent iPhone Pro models.

For the last few generations of iPhones, frosted glass backs have been exclusive to the Pro models, as it gives them a distinct visual style and allows them to lean a little deeper into their striking colors. If the information in the leak is correct, then there might not be much to easily distinguish the differences between the base iPhone 15 and its Pro counterpart when they launch later this year.

Read more
iOS 17 might add a huge Android feature to your iPhone
App Store displayed on an iPhone 14 Pro against a pink background

As Apple’s Wideworld Developers Conferencce gets closer, the rumors have continued coming in at rapid succession. Over the weekend, in his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims that iOS 17 will support app sideloading to comply with European regulations. This would allow iPhone users to download apps and games that are hosted on digital storefronts that are not Apple’s official App Store — something Android phones have been able to do for years.

With the ability to sideload apps, customers don’t necessarily need to use Apple’s App Store to download and purchase apps or make in-app purchases. This change would also mean developers can bypass Apple’s 15% to 30% fees from all purchases.

Read more