Who said your iPhone has to look like everyone else’s?
With iOS 26 rolling out this fall, Apple gives users in South Africa and around the world the power to make their home screens not just functional, but personal. This update, packed with the new Liquid Glass design language, dynamic controls, and intelligent widgets, brings a level of customization that feels like the iPhone finally caught up to you. Whether you’re managing work tasks, curating your music mood, or checking your kids’ school calendar, iOS 26 is designed to adapt to your lifestyle, not the other way around.
Widgets have been around since iOS 14, but this time, they don’t just sit there. They breathe, shift, and think with you. The goal is simple: make your device feel less like a tool and more like a reflection of how you move through your day.
Here’s how you can take full advantage of iOS 26’s upgraded widgets and why it may just change the way you use your iPhone.
What’s New with Widgets in iOS 26?
The Liquid Glass design update makes everything more interactive. App icons now react to light and background colors, but it’s the widgets that bring the real magic. You can now place them anywhere, not just on your Home Screen, but also in the Smart Stack, StandBy view, and even directly onto your Lock Screen with deeper personalization.
The biggest upgrade? Live, intelligent widgets. These aren’t static blocks anymore. The Music widget shows real-time lyrics. The Weather widget adapts based on your actual location. Your Calendar widget updates in real-time with live meeting links. Want your fitness widget to reflect how many steps you’ve taken in the past hour? It does that too, without you even opening the app.
“It feels like my iPhone is finally in sync with me.” I used to barely use widgets. Now, they’re the first thing I see when I pick up my phone in the morning. It saves me time and keeps me focused.
How to Start Customising Like a Pro
To begin, long-press anywhere on your Home Screen and tap the ‘+’ icon. From there, you’ll enter the new Widget Gallery, redesigned in iOS 26 to feature categories like Productivity, Entertainment, Travel, and even Mental Health. This makes it easier to find widgets that actually match your daily needs.
Here are 5 practical ways South Africans are already using widgets:
- Commuter Toolkit: Use the Maps widget to display your most-used routes and check for traffic delays, especially helpful in busy cities like Joburg or Cape Town.
- Financial Pulse: Add the Wallet widget to keep track of recent purchases, tap-to-pay cards, and even package deliveries.
- Family Calendar: Parents can now create widget stacks that show school events, grocery reminders, and location updates all in one view.
- Fitness Flow: Place the Health and Fitness widgets side-by-side with Apple Music’s AutoMix, great for morning runs or gym sessions.
- Creative Workspace: Writers, photographers, and musicians are combining Notes, Reminders, and the new Games app widgets for a workspace that’s actually inspiring.
You can also stack widgets of the same size and let iOS rotate them based on your time, location, or even activity, like showing the Reminders widget during work hours and the Podcasts widget during your evening wind-down.
Accessibility.
New features include an all-new experience designed with Braille users in mind, more options for Vehicle Motion Cues to help reduce motion sickness, and a more customizable reading experience.
Family.
Parents can move kids to child accounts more easily and take advantage of a wide set of parental controls designed to keep children safe. These include enhancements across Communication Limits, Communication Safety, and the App Store.
Audio recording.
Capture high-quality audio during video conference calls. And record in high definition in Camera with AirPods and AirPods Pro with the H2 chip.
Reminders.
With Apple Intelligence, Reminders can suggest tasks, grocery items, and follow-ups based on emails or other text on your device. It can also automatically categorize related reminders into sections within a list.
Photos.
With an updated layout, easy-to-use controls, and Library and Collections as your two main tabs, Photos makes it easier than ever to find what you’re looking for. Bring your favorite photo to life as a spatial scene, which uses the same advanced technology as visionOS to create a captivating 3D effect.
AirPods Camera Remote.
Start recording video in Camera by pressing and holding on AirPods or AirPods Pro with the H2 chip.
Clock.
Set a snooze duration between 1 and 15 minutes, giving you more flexibility and customization for your daily alarms.
CarPlay.
React with a Tapback in Messages, follow Live Activities, and get more information at a glance so you can stay connected and focused while you drive.
Journal.
Multiple journals let you keep entries for different aspects of your life separate, images can be added inline with text, and a beautiful map view shows entries based on their location.
Lock Screen & StandBy: Widgets Beyond the Home
iOS 26 expands widgets beyond the Home Screen. Lock screen widgets can now be tinted, styled, and layered with your wallpaper, thanks to the Liquid Glass effects. The time will even adapt and shift position so it doesn’t cover important elements in your wallpaper photo.
StandBy mode, introduced last year, becomes more powerful with new widgets for live sports scores, interactive to-do lists, or even sleep tracking. Place your phone on a charger, rotate it sideways, and it becomes your smart home dashboard.
“StandBy widgets let me keep an eye on my kid’s nap schedule without opening any app,” says Naledi Radebe, a mom of two from Durban. “And I still get to see my husband’s WhatsApp when it pops in, super handy.”
A Personal Touch With Genmoji
Want your widgets to feel even more like you? iOS 26 now allows you to create custom widget backgrounds or use Genmoji to label sections on your screen. For example, you can add a coffee Genmoji to a widget stack that includes your calendar and emails, perfect for those early Monday mornings.
You can also assign Focus Modes to each Home Screen. That means one swipe gives you your work setup, and another reveals your social layout. It’s like having multiple iPhones in one, each tailored for a different part of your day.
Why It Matters
For too long, the iPhone has been praised for its design, but not always its flexibility. iOS 26 changes that narrative. It allows you to shape your experience and make it more useful, more you. Whether you’re a student in Pretoria managing assignments or a freelancer in Lagos juggling clients, iOS 26 widgets are there to help, quietly, beautifully, and intelligently.
So, don’t settle for a screen that looks like everyone else’s.
“The Home Screen is the first thing you see — why not make it feel like home?”
Welcome to iOS 26, where your phone works with you, not against you.
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