How to add a photo widget on your iPhone?

Want to get quick access to your favorite photo albums? Want to learn how to see your new photo albums right from your iPhone’s home screen? Click to find a step-by-step guide on how to add a photo widget on your iPhone.

We as human beings have a hectic lifestyle and we use our phones as a major buff of information to access our daily needs. We need to be updated to the latest news, songs, trends, and all. Things as simple as what today’s temperature is? Or What is the latest rise in today’s stocks? Are very important and casual.

One of these important tasks is to have a look at your photo albums, let it be a memory or a simple nostalgia. Before iOS 14, there was no feature of having a quick look through your favorite albums. We had to go through the long process of opening the Photos app and finding the album to see through it, as you guessed it was not efficient.

How to add a photo widget on your iPhone
How to add a photo widget on your iPhone?

Apple understood this issue and resolved it by the introduction of widgets in iOS 14. It added a photo widget, which can be used to see a glance at the photos from your album gallery. It saves the user so much time by providing it right on the user’s home screen or lock screen as he prefers. In this article, we will teach you how to set up your photo widget and how to place it. Let’s see the details.

What is a widget?

So, the first question that might pop up in your mind must be, what is a widget and how is it useful to me? Well, a widget is a type of feature that allows you to get a quick view or quick access to the information inside of an app without opening the app. In simple terms, it is a miniature version of the app available at the place you decide to keep it and can be used to access the information of the app. It is a very handy tool as it saves time and energy in searching for the features it possesses in the original app.

It can also be used to edit or enter data, for example, to send messages or to open a certain feature of the main app. This way it makes it a two-way bridge and can be used for multiple purposes. In iOS 14, the widgets feature was introduced in iPhones and iPads. It can be used to set up the widgets of your favorite apps that you might daily use like News, Photos, Music, Weather, etc.

What is a photo widget?

A photo widget is a miniature version of the Photos app available at the place you decide to keep it and can be used to access your favorite photos on the go. You can use this widget to add the photos that you want quick access to. You can create this widget and also smart stack it to create a multi widget.

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This widget is available in three different sizes, each with the dimension and space that it takes on your screen. This depends on how big of the photos you want to see on your screen. You can create this widget in both the iPhone’s “Today View” menu and also the Home Screen.

How to add a photo widget on your iPhone?

Now that you know what a photo widget is, let’s start with creating a new photo widget for your iPhone. Photo widgets can be created in different places. If you want you can create a photo widget and add it anywhere on your iPhone’s home screen. We have already covered how to add widgets to iPhone– With 11 Best Tips and Tricks, must see it.

This will help you to get quick access right from your home screen and when you unlock your iPhone. The other place you can create your photo widget is the iPhone’s Today View menu. If you create a photo widget here you can access the widget in the lock screen too. Let us see the different ways you can set up in these locations:

Set up in Home Screen

When we set up our photo widget on our home screen, we get quick access to the photos right from the home screen as soon as we unlock our iPhone. This feature is useful for those who want to get very quick access to their photos and keep them private and not on the Lock Screen. Let us see the steps to set up a photo widget on our iPhone’s home screen:

Steps:

  1. Find an empty space on your iPhone’s home screen and press and hold on to it.
  2. The apps around will start shaking and a “+” icon will appear at the top right corner of your iPhone.
  3. Click on the “+” icon and a list of widgets will be opened.
  4. From the widgets swipe down until you find the “Photos” tab and click on it. (If you find the photos tab above in the list you can directly select it from there instead of going down and searching in there)
  5. In the “Photos widget” menu, swipe left or right to select the image size that you want on your home screen.
  6. After Selecting, click on the “Add Widget” button.
  1. The photo widget will appear and hover over the screen and will shake as the apps.
  2. Drag the photo widget to your preferred location on your home screen and release it.
  3. Click on anywhere outside the photo widget to confirm the location of the widget.

By following the above steps, you should successfully be able to set up your photo widget on your iPhone’s home screen.

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Set up in Today View

Today View is a quick action menu added in iOS 13, to get access to important applications in a fast and reliable way. When we set up our photo widget on our Today View screen, we get quick access to the photos right from the lock screen and we do not need to unlock our iPhone. This feature is useful for those who want to get very quick access to their photos and get our photos directly from our lock screen. Although to get access to more photos we have to unlock the iPhone. Let us see the steps to set up a photo widget on our iPhone’s home screen:

Steps:

  1. Swipe left on your iPhone’s home screen until you reach the Today View screen.
  2. Scroll to the bottom and click Edit. (Alternatively, you can find an empty spot on the screen and press and hold it) 
  3. The surrounding widgets and apps will start shaking and you will see a “+” icon in the upper right corner of your iPhone. 
  4. Click the “+” icon to open the list of widgets. 
  5. From the widget, scroll down until you find the Photos tab and press it. (If you have a Photos tab at the top of the list, you can select directly from there instead of navigating down and searching.) 
  6. In the Photos widget menu, swipe left or right to select the image size to display on the Today screen.
  7. Once selected, click the Add Widget button below. 
  8. The photo widget will appear, float on the screen and shake like any other widget. 
  9. Drag and drop the photo widget anywhere on the Today View screen (you can also drag it from here to the home screen if you want). 
  10. Click outside the photo widget to locate the widget.

By following the above steps, you should successfully be able to set up your photo widget on your iPhone’s Today View Screen.

How to change your photos in the photo widget?

This is where things get a little problematic, you can select the different shapes, sizes, and locations of photos in your photo albums but cannot force a favorite album to be showcased in the photo widget. This is a very big issue as this causes you to not be able to hold your favorite photos in your photo widget. You can check our previous article on how to change the color of your Apps iOS 14, for more clarity.

Apple’s photo widget uses an algorithm to select your best shots and preview them on your photo widget. There is no way how you can change this manage to get your favorite photos to be displayed on the widget. We hope this is simply a bug or design fault and might be corrected in the newer iOS updates. But till then if you want a photo to not be displayed on the photo widget then you can only remove that photo from the featured album and it will stop showing on the widget. Below are the steps to remove an image from the photo widget.

Steps:

  1. You will have to wait for the image you want to remove to appear on the widget.
  2. Click on the photo.
  3. Press on the share icon. It is an icon with a rectangle and an upwards-facing arrow.
  4. Select the “Remove from Featured Photos” tab.
  5. Check the photo widget.
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By following the above steps, you should successfully be able to stop the photo from appearing in the photo widget.

What are the alternatives to add a photo widget on your iPhone?

Don’t worry if you want to select your favorite photos for your photo widget album. We will help you do just that. We have to use some of the alternative third-party widget apps that are available on the App store to select the photos which we want to use. Some of these apps are very useful and have multi-functionalities. Some of these third-party apps that we can use to set up our custom photo widget are Photo Widget: Simple and Widgetsmith.

Let us see the steps of how we can use a third-party app (in this example Photo Widget: Simple) to set up our custom photo widget.

Photo Widget

Steps:

  1. Open your App Store and search for Photo Widget: Simple app.
  2. Download the application and install it.
  3. Go ahead and open the application.
  4. Go to the widget section from the bottom bar.
  5. Tap the “+” icon present in the middle of the screen to create a new album.
  6. Select the photos you want to be displayed on your widget.
displayed on your widget
  1. Go to your Home screen and add a photo widget of the app (Follow the same steps as before just instead of selecting Photos in the list of widgets select Photo Widget: Simple)
  2. After setting up the widget long press on it to open its settings.
  3. Set the widget to your Album.
  4. Check the widget.

By following the above steps, you should successfully be able to set up your custom photo widget on your iPhone.

Conclusion

With this article, I hope I was able to solve all your issues related to the topic of how to add a photo widget on your iPhone. Follow the steps that are given and you should have no problems creating a custom based photo widget with your favorite photos as its album

If you still have any problems then you may see the Frequently asked questions given below to find some solutions.

FAQ

Can I make multiple-image photo album widgets?

Yes, you can make multiple-image photo album widgets. If you use an app like Photo Widget: Simple you can create image albums of up to 30 photos 

Can anybody see my images from the lock screen?

Yes, but only if you have the photo widget set up in the Today View screen of your iPhone.

How do I remove a photo widget from my iPhone?

To remove the photo widget that you have set up. Find the widget that you want to remove. Click and hold on it until a pop-up screen appears and then select the “Remove widget” option from the menu.