Oliver Haslam·

iOS 15 And iPadOS 15 Add New First-Party App Widgets To The Home Screen

Apple announced iOS 15 as part of today’s WWDC21 opening keynote and while we’re still working through some of the new features and changes, we do already know that Apple is adding new widgets for some of its existing first-party apps.

According to Apple, we can look forward to six new widgets that will offer at-a-glance information for apps like Find My, Contacts, and even Game Center.

Considering there’s no such thing as a Game Center app anymore, that last one is particularly interesting.

The new widgets coming to iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 are:

  • Find My widget – Keep track of your friends and personal items right from the Home Screen with the Find My widget
  • Contacts widget – Stay connected to family and friends from your Home Screen with the Contacts widget. Reach them via Phone, Messages, FaceTime, Mail, or Find My. With Family Sharing, you can take additional actions, like approving purchases or Screen Time requests from your kids.
  • Game Center widgets – The Continue Playing widget displays your recently played Game Center–enabled games across devices. The Friends Are Playing widget helps you discover the games your friends play.
  • App Store widget – See the stories, collections, and in‑app events from your Today tab right on your Home Screen.
  • Sleep widget – See data about how you slept and review your sleep schedule with the Sleep widget.
  • Mail widget – Glance at your latest email and get quick access to one of your mailboxes with the Mail widget.

All of the new widgets will be available to users of iPhones and iPads later this year. The initial betas are already in the hands of developers, while a public beta will kick in next month. It’ll be this fall before everyone else can get in on the act, though.

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