Apple Supposedly Considering Interactive Widgets for iOS 17

Earlier today, an anonymous source who shared accurate information in the past revealed potential new features coming to the iPhone with iOS 17, including improvements to Search, the Dynamic Island, Control Center, and more. In addition, the source indicated that Apple is internally testing interactive widgets for the Home Screen and Today View, but they are unclear if this feature will make the final cut.

iOS 17 Widgets
"Active widgets are in testing, but not confirmed by any means," the source said in a tweet. If made available to the public, the source said the interactive widgets would include one-tap buttons, sliders, and other dynamic content. The source shared additional alleged details about iOS 17 in a MacRumors Forums post.

Introduced with iOS 14, Home Screen widgets currently offer very limited functionality, as noted in Apple's developer documentation. "Widgets present read-only information and don’t support interactive elements such as scrolling elements or switches," says Apple. These limitations could be related to battery life considerations.

Last year, the same source leaked accurate details about the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro before the device was announced. However, given the source has yet to establish a long-term track record with Apple rumors, it remains to be seen if all of the latest details they have shared prove to be accurate this time around.

Apple is expected to announce iOS 17 during the WWDC 2023 keynote on June 5, and as usual, the first beta version should be made available to developers for testing later that day. The first public beta will likely be released in July.

Related Roundup: iOS 17

Top Rated Comments

tgwaste Avatar
7 weeks ago
Man I wish they would just finally let us adjust the grid size.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
RaceLover Avatar
7 weeks ago
Wish they'd let us arrange icons wherever !
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
eicca Avatar
7 weeks ago
It would only be about eight years too late...
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarAnalogy Avatar
7 weeks ago

Man I wish they would just finally let us adjust the grid size.
And just let me leave an icon where I put it instead of forcing me to play a sudoku puzzle to arrange my icons how I want them.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
redbeard331 Avatar
7 weeks ago
It’s about time, remember, the widgets used to be interactive, so this would just be returning functionality that we lost once you could put them on the Homescreen.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
t0rqx Avatar
7 weeks ago
Probably need the new 3nm A17 chipset for the interactive widgets to work on your iPhone.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)