iPhone Features Interactive Widgets Starting With iOS 17 - MacRumors
Skip to Content

iPhone Features Interactive Widgets Starting With iOS 17

by

Starting with iOS 17, interactive widgets are now available on the iPhone across the Home Screen, Lock Screen, and the new StandBy mode. Apple gave some examples of what interactive widgets can be used for, including marking a reminder as completed, playing or pausing a song or podcast, and controlling accessories in the Home app, and there will be many more possibilities as third-party apps are updated with support.

iOS 17 Interactive Widgets
Introduced with iOS 14, Home Screen widgets offered limited functionality until now, as Apple did not allow developers to include interactive elements, such as scrolling, buttons, or animated transitions. Home Screen widgets were only allowed to present read-only information, and tapping on a widget would simply open the corresponding app. Now, users will be able to interact with widgets directly for some actions.

Interactive widgets are also available on the iPad's Home Screen and Lock Screen with iPadOS 17, and on the Mac's desktop with macOS Sonoma. All of the software updates are currently available in beta and will be released to the public later this year.

Related Forums: iOS 17, iPadOS 17

Popular Stories

iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
Read Full Article • 77 comments
Apple Logo Sketch Feature

Apple Has Now Unveiled Eight New Products This Month

Tuesday March 17, 2026 9:25 am PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping eight new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, and now the AirPods Max 2 this week. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone 16e, but it gains Apple's...
Read Full Article
ios 26 4 yellow

Here Are Apple's Release Notes for iOS 26.4

Wednesday March 18, 2026 11:56 am PDT by
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4, which means we're going to see a public launch as soon as next week. The RC versions of the software include Apple's official release notes, giving us final details on what's included in the update. Apple Music - Playlist Playground (beta) generates a playlist from your...
Read Full Article • 102 comments

Top Rated Comments

Ghost31 Avatar
Ghost31
37 months ago
It’s funny that there’s so much overlap between iOS and iPadOS that they had to save this for the iPadOS section to make it seem like iPad gets features
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️ Avatar
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️
37 months ago
Looks amazing but the only thing I’m worried about is the battery life. Hopefully, it doesn’t drain the battery life.

When the battery life drains fast it just makes the whole experience lame.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Spock Avatar
Spock
37 months ago
I just want them to allow me to shut off snap to grid! Let me put widgets and icons where I want! Such a simple feature that they refuse to implement.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AppleTO Avatar
AppleTO
37 months ago
Cool, but now we will have to wait yet another year for all the companies to updates their widgets to support this. Some have just finally released the new style widgets.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
B
boyarka
37 months ago
Gee, mister. Interactive widgets? That's been on Android since like... when Noah built that ark.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
biracialfamily91 Avatar
biracialfamily91
37 months ago
I can't wait to use in September. This is one of my most requested features. Now if they could add split screen multi-taking and theme packs, then I wouldn't complain about how slow Apple takes to bring in features that Android has had for years.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments