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Widgetsmith: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/widgetsmith/id1523682319?itsct=apps_box_link&itscg=30200
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0:00
[Music]
0:01
Widget Smith uh is an app built by uh
0:04
our friend David Smith and I help him
0:06
with uh kind of everything but the code
0:09
and it is a great way to customize your
0:11
home screen and lock screen on your
0:13
iPhone or your iPad. Um so you can see
0:16
here I've got a couple of widgets built.
0:17
I've got the unofficial widget smmith
0:20
dog Muppet. Um little text widget here
0:23
and then uh a calendar. And uh a new
0:26
feature we've got that I'm really
0:28
excited about is wallpapers. So we've
0:31
worked with a bunch of designers. Uh
0:34
listeners and watchers of this show will
0:36
recognize some of this from basic Apple
0:38
guy. He's one of the designers we've
0:39
been working with.
0:40
Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah.
0:41
And uh and it's really awesome. You can
0:43
go in here and most of these are free.
0:46
You can go in and save the wallpaper to
0:49
your camera roll and then go set it as
0:50
your wallpaper on your device. But my
0:53
favorite feature is the ability to
0:54
coordinate
0:56
uh your widget themes with it. So if you
0:58
want like a really nice aesthetic across
1:00
everything
1:02
and so we have this really great feature
1:04
that looks at the colors in the
1:05
wallpaper and you can even upload your
1:07
or like have your own photo in here. So
1:10
like I say you've got a photo you took
1:11
of the beach and you want your widget
1:13
colors to match it. Uh we can coordinate
1:15
with that. But then I can go in here and
1:17
I can build a widget with this theme.
1:20
Um, so
1:21
if you want like a super aesthetic like
1:22
color match wallpaper, it does all the
1:23
work for you and find
1:24
all the work for you. None of that like
1:26
back and forth of like, oh, that blue's
1:28
a little wrong. Like it does a great job
1:29
picking them.
1:31
Um, so I can go in here and like I can
1:33
go here and pick uh, you know, we've got
1:35
a whole bunch of different widgets in
1:37
here. Like you know, I like the weather
1:38
one. I'm not in Rome. Uh, so we'll
1:41
change that to Memphis. And
1:45
I could save this widget
1:47
and I can go in here and add it to my
1:49
home screen.
1:50
And because it is
1:54
um we got three different sizes because
1:57
it is set to to match those colors. It
2:02
just looks really good. Like it it pulls
2:04
kind of that that purple maroon from the
2:06
cloud
2:07
and brings it in. And of course I can
2:08
rearrange them just like any other
2:10
widget. Uh, and this has been really
2:12
popular with our users. We're seeing a
2:13
lot of people check out these wallpapers
2:16
and it's just a great way to like easily
2:18
overhaul your entire device look. Uh,
2:22
this is great on the iPad in particular.
2:23
Maybe you want sort of a launch pad kind
2:26
of control center uh uh you know of all
2:29
your stuff. So you can have your
2:31
calendar and a big weather thing and it
2:32
all matches your wallpaper and looks
2:34
looks really good and it takes all the
2:36
guesswork out of trying to get these
2:38
things kind of in tune, right? We've all
2:41
had that with app icons or a widget and
2:43
you like you put it on your home screen,
2:44
it's like, "Oh, that really clashes or
2:46
maybe there's not enough contrast and it
2:48
kind of gets lost."
2:49
Uh, this feature really takes care of
2:52
that for you. I mean, even this like
2:54
pulling out all these blues. The first
2:56
time I saw this working when David sent
2:58
me the first prototype, uh, I was just
3:01
blown away. And it's all done on device
3:03
instantly. It is really cool.
3:06
And does it work with like the the
3:07
built-in like system wallpapers? Like if
3:08
you have, you know, the the, you know,
3:11
stock iOS 26 wallpaper, we'll be able to
3:13
pull that out for you or
3:14
Yeah. So like with that uh you Apple
3:18
doesn't make it easy for developers to
3:20
get to those wallpapers actually. But if
3:23
you know like y'all and a bunch of
3:24
people like you know if you
3:26
save the that image then you can go in
3:29
here and you can coordinate a theme
3:31
based on a photo in your photo library.
3:34
So like you know these are all
3:35
screenshots but say that I wanted to use
3:38
uh this this sort of teal color
3:40
it would it would find that for me. So
3:42
you would need to save the c the the
3:44
default wallpaper as an image. Uh but
3:46
then you could coordinate with it really
3:48
easily.
3:50
And what kind which what what wallpapers
3:51
you've do you have there uh to uh to
3:54
work with?
3:55
Yeah. So we've we've got a lot of sort
3:57
of colorful gradient stuff. We kind of
4:00
wanted to started start there really to
4:02
to show users how how the the feature
4:05
works. So, you know, you can really see
4:08
something like this one having a a real
4:10
range of colors is really nice. Uh, but
4:14
we're also working with some
4:15
photographers. So, these are these these
4:18
just happen to be some of my photos that
4:19
we put in the app. Uh, this is a a lake
4:22
kind of near my house. Um,
4:24
nice picture. Yeah.
4:25
Um, and we also have some uh some fun
4:29
stuff. So, basic
4:31
socks is pretty pretty funny. basic
4:32
Apple guy did some iPod sock artwork.
4:34
So, we brought that in.
4:36
Um, so if you want uh that cozy feeling
4:39
once it gets cold, you know, that's
4:40
great. Uh, and we're working with a
4:42
range of designers and photographers and
4:44
are dropping new wallpapers every week,
4:47
generally on Tuesdays. And, uh, you just
4:49
get a little badge in the app. We're not
4:51
sending push notifications or anything
4:53
weird like that. It's just a little
4:55
badge in the app tells you when there's
4:56
new wallpapers you can check out.
4:59
I like those uh the Sultan ones. That
5:01
That's um basic Apple guy going.
5:03
It is. Yeah, these are really cool. Uh I
5:05
love the uh I love that green with that.
5:08
Um and you can you can apply them to a
5:11
bunch of widgets and we have lots of
5:12
widget types and are always adding new
5:15
ones and we've got a lot of cool stuff
5:16
in the work.
5:17
Can you show the different different
5:18
widgets like with the text one is that
5:20
um you know uh it looks like a sort of
5:25
Yeah. So this I can just put I can put
5:27
whatever uh here I want. Uh, so I can
5:31
say hello internet.
5:32
That's a different podcast.
5:33
Typing live on a show is always fun. Um,
5:36
and then we have a lot of themes. And so
5:38
here we have themes based on the iPhone
5:40
16 colors.
5:42
You know that that awesome ultra marine
5:44
color we were talking about earlier.
5:46
Uh, the system colors, but then lots of
5:49
of other themes. So here we've got
5:51
autumn leaves. And say I wanted to
5:53
customize this and change the font or if
5:57
I wanted to change the tint like say I
5:59
wanted that to be uh pink or I wanted it
6:01
to, you know, stand out a little bit
6:03
less and go with the sort of that autumn
6:05
color. Uh lots of backgrounds, different
6:08
borders we can apply. So system colors
6:11
and uh all the way down here at the
6:13
bottom, we actually have a custom color
6:14
picker. So you can like or if you have
6:19
like a a hex value of a color you like,
6:21
you can just like copy and paste that
6:22
from the internet or type it in.
6:24
And so you can really customize these
6:27
things uh really nicely. And lots of
6:29
different types, lots of clocks, lots of
6:31
weather. Uh some of my favorites are the
6:35
uh the pollen counts. Uh someone who has
6:39
seasonal allergies, I always have these,
6:41
you know, in the spring.
6:42
Um
6:43
that's a great idea. Uh, and then some
6:45
activity and and and uh uh step counting
6:49
uh reminders. So I can I can go in here
6:51
and say actually um like if I had
6:54
reminders set up on this phone. This is
6:56
kind of a test phone so I don't have any
6:57
reminders on here. Have my to-do list in
6:59
here. Um lots and lots of options. It's
7:02
it's really great.
7:03
I saw you had title tides and what what
7:07
about the uh the photo one? Is that you
7:09
said the the official dog of widgets?
7:12
Yeah, that's Muppet. Uh it's just a
7:14
stock photo that we've had forever. Um
7:17
so you can select a photo. We have photo
7:18
collection as well. So you can go in and
7:21
add uh you could add multiple photos.
7:25
And the system will just kind of
7:28
throughout the day, this widget will uh
7:31
cycle between these photos. And so I've
7:34
got one of these on my personal phone
7:36
with about a dozen photos of my wife.
7:39
And it's every kind of throughout the
7:41
day over time I get a a different photo
7:44
in that widget.
7:45
And Apple's official photos widget won't
7:46
let you be that nitpicky with it. Like
7:48
you can pick an album, but this lets you
7:50
pick specific pictures.
7:51
That's right. I like Apple's photo
7:53
widget, but if you want something really
7:55
specific, like
7:56
maybe you've just had a baby or you know
7:58
you want a picture of your you and your
8:00
granddad fishing, whatever it might be.
8:02
Uh it's really nice to go in here and
8:04
build your own collections to have full
8:06
control over that because Apple's you're
8:08
kind of left up to their system and you
8:11
know maybe you've had the experience I
8:12
certainly have of like going there
8:14
telling actually I don't want that photo
8:16
in the widget right and they have a
8:17
feature for that like feature this
8:19
person less with widget smith you have
8:21
full control over what shows up there
8:23
which is really nice
8:25
and uh one of the other features is that
8:27
you can uh uh set it for different times
8:29
of the day is that correct so that you
8:31
can see different widgets is at
8:32
different times.
8:33
That's right. So, say that we've got my
8:35
uh say we've got a photo widget here,
8:37
and I'll just pick my little cartoon
8:39
version of myself.
8:41
And if I go up to settings up here at
8:42
the top,
8:44
there's a timed widgets section.
8:47
And so, I can go in here and I can say,
8:50
you know, between eight
8:51
Oh, that's cool.
8:52
eight and six,
8:54
I want that, you know, that that photo
8:57
of me.
9:00
But then I want, you know, kind of the
9:03
the rest of the day, you know, may maybe
9:05
this is work hours and off work hours.
9:08
And maybe during work hours, I want
9:10
instead of a photo, you know, maybe I
9:12
want my calendar there because maybe I'm
9:15
always referencing that
9:16
and it's in the same widget. So you
9:17
don't have to go flicking through a
9:18
smart stack because
9:20
I find the smart stacks to just be
9:21
incredibly irritating.
9:22
Yeah, it's the same. It's the same
9:24
widget. So,
9:26
uh, in this case, you know, between 6
9:28
and 7, the way I did this just on the
9:29
fly, would show my calendar. Uh, and
9:32
then between 8 and six would show this
9:34
little cartoon character, me, and I can
9:35
pick a third one up here. But you're
9:37
right, it's the same widget. So, if that
9:40
widget, you know, is on your home screen
9:42
or maybe on that today view
9:45
at the set time, it will flip over to
9:47
that different type. And you can pick
9:48
between uh any different type. So, I
9:51
could have a photo, a calendar, and
9:52
then, you know, maybe for that other
9:54
time, maybe I wanted uh the temperature
9:57
uh you know, temperature high and low.
9:59
And that one widget will take on those
10:02
different functionalities throughout my
10:04
day. It's I use this one a lot for
10:07
uh uh I've got on my on my personal
10:10
phone, I have during the workday, I have
10:11
a time zone widget because everybody I
10:13
work with is in a different time zone.
10:15
Uh but then in the evenings, it's a
10:17
family photo. And for me, that's just
10:19
like a a bit of a reminder of like,
10:21
okay, I'm not at work right now. Like,
10:23
this is it can really set the tone of
10:25
your home screen just by setting up a
10:28
time to widget or two.
10:30
Cool. Cool. You have a such a family
10:32
instead of like uh the opening times of
10:35
the local bar,
10:38
right?
10:39
Or happy happy hour specials and stuff
10:41
like Hey, and we've got countdown
10:42
widgets. So, you know, if you want to
10:43
count down to that uh when it opens, you
10:46
can you can see that, too.
10:48
And so, I I presumably you can each
10:50
widget can be timed. Is that right? So,
10:52
if you have three or four widgets on
10:53
your home screen, each one can be set to
10:55
a different thing.
10:56
Absolutely.
10:57
Yeah. Very cool.
10:58
Yeah, it's great.
10:58
Very cool.
10:59
That's a really great feature.
11:01
Well, I I don't really do anything with
11:03
my widgets. I got to be honest. I hardly
11:05
touched them. Like you said, the smart
11:07
talk I found annoying. Um,
11:09
yeah,
11:09
it uh
11:12
it uh but I know a lot of people do use
11:14
uh widgets for a lot of useful things
11:17
and this this really seems like a good
11:18
way to do it. I in fact I'm really I'm
11:20
more interested in doing on my iPad. I
11:21
think
11:22
it's great on the iPad. In the iPad, you
11:23
also get an additional size. You get the
11:25
extra large size which is like really
11:27
big. And uh you know my iPad I've got
11:30
one screen that's just my apps and then
11:32
I have a second screen that's basically
11:33
all widgets. And so if I want to see my
11:36
to-do list or my calendar or some photos
11:39
really quickly, uh, I can do that. And
11:41
it's it's great if you have your iPad
11:43
kind of at your desk throughout the day.
11:45
It's like a sort of just a secondary
11:47
device and kind of build a build
11:49
like a little control panel.
11:50
Yeah, exactly.
11:51
That's a great idea. That's a really
11:52
good idea. Have you actually, you know
11:53
what, I've got an old iPad. I always
11:55
want to kind of mount it on the wall and
11:56
have that sort of, you know, do do that
11:58
do that kind of thing. Have a like an
12:00
information display. Yeah, that sounds
12:01
like a really good way to to do that.
12:03
What's that fuzzy time one there? Is
12:04
that just the time fuzzy or
12:06
Yeah. So it's it's uh
12:09
so if I set my location to Memphis. So
12:11
right now it's it's uh 12:24. So fuzzy
12:14
time is 25 12. You know, if you don't
12:16
need to be that exact about your time.
12:19
Oh,
12:19
it's pretty it's pretty fun. Uh I
12:22
personally fuzzy time is not for me. I
12:24
want the exact time. But a lot of people
12:26
live a more relaxed life than I do.
12:30
Yeah. Yeah. Whenever people ask me the
12:31
time, I always say, "Oh, it's 10 after
12:32
or whatever."
12:33
Yeah.
12:34
I round it up or round it down. I'm a
12:36
fuzzy. Yeah. I'm a fuzzy time sort of
12:38
person.
12:38
That's right.
12:40
It's very cool. Can you show me a few
12:41
more widgets? What other things can you
12:42
do with this?
12:42
Yeah. Let me show you the uh the action
12:45
widgets. This is something we built last
12:46
year um based on uh the actions that
12:51
applications and like x callback URL
12:54
sort of that section of iOS. And so we
12:57
have a lot of actions built in. So it's
13:01
just it's just a widget type. I go in
13:02
here and I can say I want I want action
13:05
and then I can choose an action from
13:07
this list. And so uh say that I want to
13:12
you know I want to have one that opens
13:14
one password.
13:15
Oh, and what it does is I get four
13:18
buttons. I'm just going to build build
13:20
the rest of these really quickly. Um
13:22
I saw Amazon there. So I wanted to open
13:23
up Amazon,
13:24
right? So here I'm just going to have it
13:27
um
13:29
uh open these.
13:33
And of course I've got lots of themes,
13:34
you know, all the themes across every
13:36
widget type. Uh we'll pick system
13:38
purple.
13:40
And then if I switch to this widget, so
13:43
if I edit the widget and pick my action
13:46
widget I just built. Now this widget has
13:49
four buttons on it. So, if I uh this one
13:53
is set to open the app store,
13:55
it'll open the app store for me.
13:58
Um, and there we are. So, we can see see
14:01
what's going on
14:02
uh going on here. Or this one I had set
14:04
to open to the uh the weather app. And
14:07
so, it's
14:08
showing weather there. So, it's great.
14:11
And again, on the iPad in particular,
14:13
setting this to a large or extra-large
14:14
widget, you get a lot of buttons. Um,
14:16
and there a couple different designs.
14:18
You could have this if you wanted a a
14:20
home screen that's just text, right? You
14:22
go a really minimal look, you could have
14:24
a text action widget and instead of
14:27
these icons, which you can choose
14:29
different themes for the icons, too, you
14:30
could just have text labels. So, you
14:32
could have just a big widget that says
14:34
like text mom, check calendar, you know,
14:37
navigate home, and each of those be an
14:39
action, but it's just text. And if you
14:42
color match it to your wallpaper,
14:43
open app, but like open a specific part
14:45
of an app,
14:46
right? So you can make it super minimal
14:49
and really clean looking. And we've got
14:51
a lot of people doing that for just a
14:53
really uh really simple aesthetic that I
14:55
think is is pretty cool.
14:57
How many buttons could you put in the uh
14:59
uh what was the maximum?
15:00
Uh so if I do the large widget on the
15:02
iPhone,
15:04
I can do
15:06
25. They get pretty small.
15:07
Wow.
15:08
Um
15:10
um and you got options to show the
15:12
title. Uh you can have you can change
15:14
the the look a little bit. So, like I
15:17
could do padded if I wanted to do a
15:18
border around this widget. So, maybe it
15:20
look a little bit better. Um, but we
15:22
made it pretty compact. Or if you just
15:24
want one big one, right? Like this is I
15:27
think a great use case for maybe someone
15:29
maybe you have someone in your life
15:30
who's an older iPhone user and you want
15:32
like, "Hey,
15:33
click my face and it calls me, right? I
15:36
can make this action
15:38
set to the call and put my number in
15:41
there and set the icons like if you
15:43
click this, it calls me." Um, so you can
15:45
make it kind of a very simple iPhone
15:47
home screen, too. Or you can go, you
15:50
know, pure like NASA computer switches,
15:53
uh, if you wanted to do that. Have 25
15:55
actions in here.
15:58
Very cool. Very cool. All right. Can you
15:59
show us a couple more widgets then?
16:01
Yeah. A great thing we've got and also
16:03
new uh last year uh is the ability to
16:06
have control center actions. So these
16:09
pull from the same uh the same actions
16:11
here. So say that I wanted uh the
16:14
ability to open um Apple News
16:18
from the control center. Um so I can
16:21
make a control center control here. So
16:24
it's just open Apple News. But in here
16:26
in control center I can add a control. I
16:30
can find widget smmith which would be
16:33
here.
16:34
And then I can choose I only have one so
16:36
it's going to show me one here. But now
16:39
I've built a custom control to open
16:42
Apple News.
16:43
And so if I if I just, you know,
16:45
anywhere I am on my phone, this is a
16:48
terrible idea for your mental health.
16:49
Don't build an Apple News control. But
16:51
if you wanted to uh and then it would
16:53
just open uh Apple News for me.
16:55
That's why you put Oh, no.
16:56
That's right.
16:57
Why you won't do that?
16:58
That's right. The control center stuff's
17:00
really cool. I I loved in iOS 18 the
17:03
ability for app developers to put things
17:04
in the control center and to have those
17:07
multiple screens, right? So, I can have
17:08
all of these different controls. Um, and
17:11
so Widget Smmith, you can make your own.
17:12
So, you could have a control center
17:14
screen that's basically your favorite
17:16
people to message, right? And have their
17:18
names and tap on them. Um, I've got one
17:21
on my personal phone that's text Mary,
17:22
my wife. And so, it I anywhere I'm on my
17:25
phone, I can pull down control center,
17:27
hit that button, and it pops me into
17:29
iMessage into our thread. It's really
17:31
fast. Much faster than kind of goofing
17:33
around in a bunch of different apps.
17:35
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,
17:37
that's all really cool.
17:38
Yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's really
17:40
flexible and really powerful. The vast
17:43
majority of the features of Widget
17:44
Smmith are free. You know, we've got
17:46
some premium widgets and some premium
17:48
wallpapers behind a subscription. Uh but
17:50
if you want to use it to build photo
17:51
widgets and a lot of other types, uh
17:53
it's absolutely free. So, people should
17:55
go go check it out in the app store.
17:58
Right. Yeah. Yeah. And it's called
17:59
Widget Smmith. So, Widget Smmith on the
18:00
App Store.
18:01
Yes, sir. Widget smmith.
18:03
Very cool. Very nice. once a top 10 app
18:05
on the entire app store.
18:07
That's right. At launch it went viral uh
18:09
on Tik Tok actually and um and it's been
18:14
popular ever since. I mean, you know,
18:16
I've got two high schoolers and they
18:19
were using it before I told them that I
18:21
was working on it. Right. Like it's the
18:23
word of mouth is incredible for Widget
18:25
Smith. We're very uh very fortunate.
18:28
Your kids became users, but but they
18:29
didn't even know you were working.
18:30
That's right. You know, you know how it
18:32
is, right? like your kids don't think
18:34
you're cool. Uh I was like, you know,
18:35
but now now I like user test on them. I
18:37
like, oh, hey, like we're thinking about
18:38
this feature. What do you think? And
18:40
kind of judge their reaction. Uh which
18:42
is very useful sometimes. Um but yeah,
18:45
my kids use it to have photos and uh my
18:48
daughter in particular is a big user to
18:50
kind of stay organized with school
18:51
stuff. So she has kind of a large text
18:54
widget of her class schedule and her
18:57
to-do list is in there. And um it's it's
19:00
really fantastic to surface parts of
19:03
your phone or parts of your life just on
19:05
your home screen, right? Which is
19:07
kind of the the the
19:09
beauty of widgets, right? I don't have
19:11
to go into an app and then get
19:13
distracted and kind of forget what I was
19:15
going to do
19:16
or like the time zone widget that I use
19:18
all the time. I don't trust myself to do
19:21
that math, especially times a year where
19:24
the US and other countries our daylight
19:26
savings times don't line up, which is
19:29
bonkers. It's like it's like, oh, I can
19:31
just check this widget. I know it's
19:32
right. I know what time it is for this
19:34
person or that person,
19:36
and I'm not I'm I'm then I can get back
19:38
to what I'm I'm needing to do. And the
19:41
widgets have just helped me get that
19:43
information and kind of get in and get
19:44
out. The the class schedule one is
19:46
really handy for people in school
19:47
because I was in college at the time
19:50
where all of my friends would just take
19:52
an ugly screenshot of their schedule and
19:53
just set that as their wallpaper.
19:55
Oh yeah.
19:55
And then notifications would just
19:56
constantly cover it up and
19:58
Yeah. That's no good.
20:00
That's That's no good at all.
20:02
I mean my first question when I saw
20:03
Widget Smith was you know how how is
20:05
this different from Apple's built-in
20:06
widgets and and obviously you know it's
20:09
it you've got a lot far more widgets far
20:12
more control than Apple offers. Yeah.
20:14
And really want to put the the power of
20:18
this into the hands of the users so they
20:23
can build what they need, right? And so
20:26
here and just as I've been talking, uh,
20:29
you know, kind of made up kind of a a
20:31
goofy little schedule and, you know, I
20:35
can pick my theme real quick and, you
20:38
know, maybe it's maybe it's a winter uh
20:40
semester at school. And so I put some
20:42
snowflakes around it with just a few
20:43
taps. I've built something that I can
20:45
reference throughout my day. And if I
20:47
tied it in with timed widgets, right,
20:49
maybe I only want to see this between 8
20:51
and 3.
20:52
And maybe I want to see a schedule for
20:54
work. You know, maybe I'm a student
20:55
working in the evenings or on weekends.
20:57
Being able to change that with the clock
20:59
is uh adds a new adds an additional
21:02
dimension to it that can be really
21:03
useful. You can even make a timed widget
21:05
that's timed for your schedule so that
21:07
you know when you're in one class it
21:08
just says go to the next class it's in
21:09
this room in this building dummy.
21:11
Absolutely. So 8 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. it
21:13
says math
21:14
and then 9 to 10 a.m. it says English
21:16
and then 12:30 to 1:30 it says lunch.
21:18
And so you can just see what you're
21:20
supposed to be doing. That's a great
21:21
point.
21:22
Cool. Well, thanks for that Stephen.
21:23
Thanks very much for giving us a tour of
21:25
of Widget Smmith.