Productivity
Widgetsmith
Build your own iPhone home and lock screen widgets, from photos and clocks to weather and step counts.
Get the app
Opens the official store page
- Developer
- Cross Forward Consulting, LLC
- Score
- 4.6
- Downloads
- 100K+ ratings
- Age
- Rated 4+
- Version
- 8.7
- Price
- Free
Screenshots
About this app
Widgetsmith, by Cross Forward Consulting, is the app that turned custom iOS widgets into a hobby. You build each widget yourself, choosing a type and then tuning fonts, colours, borders and themes until it fits the Home Screen look you're after, and the same tools work on the Lock Screen. Widget types include photos and photo galleries with filters and borders, date and time clocks, countdown timers, activity and step counts, solar and lunar trackers, weather, and a time zone tracker. Widgets can carry Actions to launch apps, run Shortcuts or send a text from the Home Screen or Control Center. A timed option swaps what a slot shows through the day, say weather in the morning and calendar at work. A wallpaper library comes with a tool for matching widget themes to it. The app also bundles a weather view with air quality, pollen and tides, a time zone converter and activity charts. Step data needs Apple Health permission.
Widgetsmith: the full guide
What the app is
Widgetsmith is the one that started the custom-widget craze. Cross Forward Consulting's app lets you build each widget: pick a type, then adjust typeface, colour, border and theme until it matches the screen around it. The same tools cover the Lock Screen.
The types run from photo galleries and clocks to countdowns, step counts, sun and moon trackers, weather and time zones. Actions let a widget launch an app, run a Shortcut or send a text, and a timed option rotates a slot's contents across the day. Also included: a weather screen covering tides, pollen and air quality, a converter for time zones and activity charts.
How it works day to day
The first session is the long one. You create a widget, pick a size, choose a type, then spend a while on fonts and tints until it sits right against your wallpaper, which the built-in wallpaper library and theme-matching tool make easier. Then you add it to the Home Screen through the normal widget gallery.
The timed widgets are where it gets clever: a morning slot shows weather, the same slot shows your calendar during work hours and a photo in the evening. Once configured, you stop noticing the app; the widgets just sit there doing their jobs.
Why people look for it
It is the name people already know, so a great many searches are from someone who was told to get Widgetsmith. Beyond reputation, the real reason is control: it is the deepest free widget editor available, and the timed slots and Actions do things the stock widgets can't. With 100K+ ratings at 4.6 it has stayed popular well past the initial craze.
Look and feel
The five screenshots will likely show finished Home and Lock Screens in several styles, plus the editor. Widgetsmith's own interface is plain and tool-like; the beauty is meant to be in the output. Because every widget is custom, the look is whatever you build, from minimalist monochrome to photo-heavy, and the wallpaper matcher helps keep it coherent.
Updates and upkeep
Version 8.7 with a corporate developer and 100K+ ratings at 4.6 indicates an app that has gone through many major revisions and is still actively used. The feature set tracks newer iOS additions such as Lock Screen widgets and Control Center actions, which implies the developer keeps pace with the platform. App Store only, as expected for an iOS-specific tool.
