Apple has removed classic widgets starting in iOS 18. They deprecated these widgets back in iOS 14 and now they have officially removed them from the operating system. Feel free to send Apple feedback if you are not a fan of this move.
The good news is that the "New Style" Home Screen widgets now have much of the same functionality as classic widgets, like folders and multi-contact launchers, and music launchers and web launchers can be launched directly from the widgets. Starting in iOS 18.1, many Apple system apps can also be launched directly from the new style widgets and a small number of third-party apps can too. We hope that Apple will eventually make it possible to launch all apps directly from Home Screen widgets.
Apple changed the widget placements in iOS 18, so you will need to recreate the transparent widget backgrounds in the app to get them to line up properly. Just repeat the same process you used in the first place, but this time be careful to choose the Home Screen Icon Size setting to correspond with this new Home Screen customization setting in iOS 18. Large Icon size is new setting which removes labels under the icons and makes the icons larger.
You will need to recreate the transparent widget backgrounds for all widgets, but the first time you update a transparent wallpaper and set the Icon Size setting, you will be given a option to update all widgets with transparent backgrounds at once.
Note that Apple again changed the placement of widgets in iOS 18.1 for iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, so you may have to recreate the transparent widget backgrounds again if you have these models.
We currently have dark mode icons for most Apple system apps. If you edit an Apple system app launcher and tap the icon, a dark mode icon will be an option if one exists. However, for third party apps, we only have access to app icons that Apple makes available in the App Store. So far Apple does not make any app's dark mode icons available. If they do eventually make these icons available, we will be sure to add them.
You can always use the "Custom Icon" feature in Launcher to add your own icon to a launcher, so this can be done manually if you can get the app's dark mode icon somehow.
Launcher has a few Control Center widgets which can be launched from the Control Center. There is one to launch the Launcher app to a specific widget and several more to activate and deactivate Live Activities widgets.
Launcher does not support launching any app from Control Center widgets because Apple limits the icons that can be used in Control Center widgets to a set of pre-defined icons. If you want to launch any app from Control Center widgets, we recommend you use the Shortcuts Open App Control Center widget which doesn't have this limitation.
In iOS 18.0, only the following iOS system apps can be launched directly from Home Screen widgets without launching the Launcher app:
Starting in iOS 18.1, you can launch many more Apple system apps directly from the Home Screen widgets without launching the Launcher app, including:
And starting in iOS 18.1 you can launch a limited set of third-party apps directly from the Home Screen widgets without launching the Launcher app, as long as they support universal links. You will need to recreate the launchers running iOS 18.1 or higher to create launchers that launch directly from the widget for these apps. The initial list of supported apps in Launcher includes:
Tap the edit button in the top right corner of the main widget list view.
To delete, then tap the red minus (-) button, then "Delete" and then confirm.
To rename the widget, tap the pencil button on the widget you want to rename.
Please note that the new widgets can have multiple widget views. Widget views can be deleted by tapping the +/- button in bottom right corner of the widget edit screen. The default view cannot be deleted. Tap the settings gear button in the bottom left of the widget edit screen to rename the widget view.
Please note that there are two different background (and label) colors or images that you can set in the app. When 'Light Mode' is selected in the app, you are setting the background and label colors for Light Mode. When 'Dark Mode' is selected, you are setting the background and label colors for Dark Mode. The background and label colors that will be used in the widget on your home screen or today view will depend on whether or not your device is currently in Light Mode or Dark Mode. So please check which mode your device is in and the corresponding background and label colors set in the app for that mode should be the one used.
If you are sure that you aren't seeing the background or label color you set in the app in the widget for the current Dark Mode setting, you may have to wait a little while for the widget to update. If you don't see it change after some time, please try rebooting your device.
iOS 14 introduces a new kind of widget that can be placed on the Home Screen on iPhone. In Launcher we refer to this new kind of widget as a "new style" widget. The older type of widget that lives in the Notification Center is still available in Launcher as well and we refer to those as "classic widgets". Classic Widgets have been removed in iOS 18 and above.
New style widgets are handy because they can be placed on the home screen, but they have some limitations over classic widgets such as:
Starting with v5.1, Launcher allows you to create a simulated transparent background for widgets on the home screen on iPhone only. It does this by having you import your wallpaper and creating a background image for the widget that fits the wallpaper perfectly.
Simulated transparent backgrounds are not supported on iPad because the home screen rotates and it isn't possible for the widget to know when the screen rotates, so it would only work in one orientation. It also isn't supported in the Today/Widget View because it is scrollable.
An iBeacon is a device that emits a signal which can be received by your iOS device. Starting in Launcher v2.1, you can use proximity to an iBeacon device to show or hide a launcher widget. This is similar to setting a widget to show or hide based on a location on a map, but because an iBeacon has a limited signal range, it can be used to define smaller area ranges to set the visibility of a widget. Some iBeacons are also portable.
This means that you can use an iBeacon to show or hide a Launcher widget in different areas of a large home or office. Or you can put an iBeacon in your car so that you can have a widget that only appears when you are inside it.
Note that there are many iBeacons on the market, but only iBeacons that expose (or let you set) their Proximity UUIDs can be used with Launcher. We recommend Rad Beacons by Radius Networks as a decent, cost effective iBeacon solution that is compatible with Launcher. They can be purchased through Amazon, other retailers, or their own website.
Live Activities Widgets are designed by Apple to be used for no more than 12 hours at a time. However, since Launcher widgets are useful 24 hours a day, our Live Activities Widgets are refreshed every time the Launcher app is active. So as long as you use the Launcher Live Activities Widget, or any other non-classic Launcher widget, at least once every 12 hours, then it should remain on the Lock Screen all of the time. However, if 12 hours passes without Launcher being used, the widget may be removed from the system. If this is the case, you can just use any non-classic Launcher widget or the app and the Live Activities Widget should come back to the Lock Screen.
It is possible to set up personal automations in the Shortcuts app to automatically activate the Launcher Live Activities widget twice a day to keep it alive. All you need to do is to set up automations to run the "Activate Live Activities Widget" Launcher app shortcut. For instance, if you set up an automation to run at 7am and another to run at 7pm every day, then the Live Activities widget should always remain on the Lock Screen.
Here are instructions on setting up personal automations in Shortcuts:
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/shortcuts/apd602971e63/ios
Some apps have a bug where they don't handle being launched from a widget properly and crash immediately after being launched. There isn't anything we can do about this since the bug is in the launched app. So if you encounter this, the only way it can be fixed is to report the bug to the developer of the app that is crashing. Be sure to explain that it happens when their app is being launched from a widget so that they can properly reproduce the issue.
In the meantime, you can create a shortcut launcher for the app that won't crash it. See this answer on how to do that.
Sometimes apps change or remove their custom URL schemes which is the only way that one app can launch another app. When that happens, the launcher for that app will no longer work. If this has happened for one of your launchers, you can email us at the support link at the bottom of this page and let us know the name of the app whose launcher is no longer working and we can look into it.
In the meantime, you can create a shortcut launcher for the app. See this answer on how to do that.
There are certain scenarios where you might want to create a shortcut launcher to launch an app, such as if the direct launcher isn't currently working or the app crashes or shows an error message when directly launched.
In these cases you can create a shortcut launcher by searching for the app under the "App Store" tab rather than the "Directly Launchable" tab. Then if you long press on the result you will be given the option to create a shortcut launcher instead.
Starting with Launcher 5 on iOS 14, Launcher Premium is a new in-app purchase that can be used to enable many features in the new style widgets. These include:
And upgrading to Launcher Premium also includes all of the benefits of our former Pro Version and Multiple Widget purchases for classic widgets.
The easiest way to see what purchases the Launcher app thinks you have made is by going to the Options menu (3-line button in the top left) and tap on "About". When it shows the name of the app as Launcher, it will then say "(Free)" if you haven't made any purchases, "(Premium)" if you've made the Launcher Premium purchase, "(Pro)" if you've made the Pro Version purchase, "(Multi)" for the multiple widgets option or "(Pro + Multi)" if you've purchased both.
You can check the purchases that you have made in the App Store and within any App Store apps In the Settings app by tapping on your account name at the top, then "iTunes & App Store" -> "Tap on Apple ID" -> "View Apple ID" -> "Purchase History". The download of Launcher will be listed with a price of $0.00 because it is a free download. Any in-app purchases will show their name and the price it was purchased for.
It can be possible that the purchases that the Launcher app sees are out of sync with what has actually been purchased, for instance when an error occurred during the purchase. In the case that you have purchases that aren't reflected properly in the app, you can tap on "Restore Purchases" in the "Options" menu of the Launcher app which should force the app to sync up your previous purchases.
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