Reboot your device and the widget will start working again. This appears to be a bug in iOS 14 and 15 that affects a number of users, but unfortunately still has not been fixed by Apple. We've filed a bug report with Apple and we hope that they will fix this issue in future versions of iOS 15. Note that your classic widget may be moved to the bottom of the widget list and you may have to move it back to its original location manually. We apologize for this inconvenience.

For some reason iOS 14 (and 15) automatically adds a new style widget in the Today View. It is blank because it hasn't yet been configured. You can configure it in the Launcher app under "Medium New Style Widgets". Or if you aren't interested in the new style widgets, you can delete it by long pressing on it and selecting "Remove Widget".

Long press on the new style widget and choose "Edit Widget". Then you will be able to configure the widget to show the exact widget configured in the app by name. If you don't see the widget name you are looking for, you may have the wrong size widget.

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".

New style widgets are handy because they can be placed on the home screen, but they have some limitations over classic widgets such as:

• Apps cannot be launched directly and must launch the Launcher app first.
• No folders
• No magic launchers
• Background cannot be transparent
• Sizes are fixed: medium and large

The classic widgets had a variable height, so the widget size could change as more launcher icons were added, but the new style widgets have fixed sizes. So the first row of icons will be centered in the widget and as you add more icons, they will create more rows. This differs from classic widgets where icons are added from the top and each new row increases the height of the widget, so a non-full new style widget will have much more blank space.

This is the biggest limitation of the new widgets. Classic widgets were able to launch apps directly. However, every tap on the new style widgets will open the widget's app. We've filed feedback with Apple to ask for the new style widgets to have the ability to directly launch apps, but they have yet to respond. We've attempted to make the opening of the Launcher app as painless as possible and that's the best that we can do for now.

No, sorry, that is not possible to change on iPhone. It doesn't appear on iPad home screens.

Yes, as of v5.1 we support small new style widgets, but there is a technical limitation there can only be one tap target on a small widget, so it is only able to host a single launcher. But if you like to have very large launchers on your home screen, it is useful for that.

Tap the +/- button in the bottom right of a new style widget edit screen. This will allow you to create multiple widget views. Each new view can be set to show at a specific time and/or location. Views are evaluated from left to right and the first qualifying view is shown. If no views qualify, the last (default) view is shown.

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.

Sorry, but those names are hard-coded into the app when it is created and cannot be changed. This is a system limitation we have no control over. You can set names for each widget in the widget settings screen and those will show up at the bottom of each widget.

You can unlock 5 more classic widgets for a total of 6.

There are some limitations on time/day based widget scheduling. The main one is that the timing is controlled via messages sent from a server to your device, so you must have a good Internet connection at the time the widget is scheduled to show or hide. Here is a list of issues that can cause widget visibility problems:

• Device isn't connected to the Internet when widget visibility changes.
• Right after a reboot, you may need to wait 5-10 minutes.
• If the device is in Low Power Mode, it won't set the visibility correctly. You can check this in the Settings app -> Battery.
• Launcher app was force closed by swiping up in the app switcher. If you have to force close Launcher for some reason, it is best to run it again manually, otherwise it cannot change widget visibility in the background.
• Make sure that Background Refresh is enabled globally and for Launcher. You can check this in the Settings app -> General -> Background App Refresh.
• Make sure that the date/time is set properly on device. Set clock to auto set in the Settings app -> General -> Date/Time.

Note that the widget visibilty should be immediately fixed by running the Launcher app.

Here are some troubleshooting tips:

• Confirm that Launcher has the 'Always' location permission in Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services.
• Confirm that Launcher location is set to 'Precise Location' in Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services.
• Right after a reboot, you may need to wait 5-10 minutes.
• If the device is in Low Power Mode, it won't set the visibility correctly. You can check this in the Settings app -> Battery.
• In order to preserve battery life, it can take up to 5 minutes for a notification that a region was entered or exited.
• Small distance changes (<500 meters) may not trigger a geofence notification. It is best not to use small geofences.
• Check your location in the Maps app and see if it is correct or not.
• Geofencing may not work if your device is in Airplane mode.

Note that the widget visibilty should be immediately fixed by running the Launcher app.

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.

Unfortunately this is not possible. The app has to wake up in the background to show or hide the widgets. This is possible to schedule at a certain time or based on location, but there isn't a way to wake the app up based on a Bluetooth or Wifi connection. Apple's Reminder app can alert you when you get in or out of your car, but Apple doesn't allow third party apps access to this feature currently.

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.

Go into the Settings app, scroll down to the Launcher section, and activate Live Activities to re-enable them in Launcher. In the future, tap the "Keep" button on the Live Activities Widget rather than the "Turn Off" button.

If you have an iPhone with Dynamic Island (currently iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max) then any activated Live Activities Widget will appear in your Dynamic Island too if you long press on it.

No, they shouldn't. Unlike most Live Activities Widgets, the Launcher widget is static and is only updated when the configuration is changed, so they should take the same amount of battery as the regular widgets.

The number of launchers you can have per widget depend on the device and launcher size. The maximum is ususally around 30-50.

Widgets have very limited memory and the more launchers you have, the more memory they take up. If you exceed the memory limit of a widget, it will crash and stop loading. There are also size limitations on widgets and for some devices and launcher sizes there simply isn't any room for more.

Yes, you can pick up to 5 different icon sizes if you upgrade to the Pro Version for classic widgets or the Premium Version for new style widgets.

Starting with version 2.0, you can automatically backup and manually restore launchers if you have purchased any in-app purchase. Look for Launcher Backup/Restore in the Options/Hamburger menu in the top left corner of the main screen. Enabling backup will automatically backup changes made to your launchers to iCloud. You can then manually restore launchers to any other device using the same iCloud account.

If you were able to launch an app from your lock screen without entering your passcode, that would be a security hole because anyone would also be able to do the same thing on your phone. There is no way for us to bypass that and we wouldn't want to if we could. If you want to not have to enter a passcode to launch apps from your lock screen, you will have to disable your passcode entirely in the Settings app. Just be aware that this makes your phone much less secure and we don't recommend it. Note that the Notification Center can be pulled down at any time you are using your iPhone or iPad, and when you use it outside of the lock screen, you will not have to enter a passcode to launch an app.

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.

Sorry, due to security restrictions in iOS, an app is not allowed access to the badge numbers of other apps, so that is not technically feasibile. Only the operating system has access to that data.

Yes, this is a built-in option starting with Launcher v4.0.

We still support tens of thousands of launchable apps. However, starting with Launcher v3.0, Apple forced us to stop checking if all launchable apps are installed, even though this was a very useful feature that made it much easier to create new app launchers. We can now only check if a few top apps are installed, which is what you will see in the Installed list initially. You must now search for an app by name before we can check if it is installed or not and then you can create a launcher for it. We are sorry for this inconvenience going forward.

There is a technical limitation in Apple's iOS which doesn't allow third party apps to launch all other apps. The target app needs to provide functionality to allow this. We've worked hard to compile a list of apps that allow this, but not all apps do.
If we can't directly launch and app, we should be able to launch it using a shortcut launcher. Search for the app under the App Store tab and if it has a Shortcuts logo, it can be launched once the shortcut is installed. Please follow the instructions for how to do this. If we don't have a shortcut launcher for an app, you can tap on it and request one and it should be added within 24 hours.
NOTE: Upgrading to the Pro or Premium Versions will not give you any more launchable apps than the free version, but it will unlock the magic launchers.

Starting with iOS 13 and Launcher v4.0, the Settings app launchers are back as shortcut launchers. With shortcut launchers, the Shortcuts app will be launched which has the ability to open the Settings app to a specific screen.

A Contact Launcher involves launching an app that uses information from a contact such as a phone number, email address or street address. Examples include calling someone, emailing someone, or getting directions to someone's house. An App Launcher is a launcher for all other apps and app actions that don't involve contact information.

A Custom Launcher is a launcher where you specify the custom URL yourself. It is recommended only for users who know what they are doing and want to launch a custom URL that they know about that isn't currently included with Launcher.

You can't change an app for a launcher. You should just delete the launcher that you don't want and create a new one for the app that you want.

Launcher uses the "tel" scheme to dial the phone in the Phone launcher. This is the only way to start phone calls on an iPhone from a third party app. Apple has added a restriction in tel: links that disallows both the asterisk (*) and pound(#) characters. Here is their explanation on the issue:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/featuredarticles/iPhoneURLScheme_Reference/PhoneLinks/PhoneLinks.html

"To prevent users from maliciously redirecting phone calls or changing the behavior of a phone or account, the Phone app supports most, but not all, of the special characters in the tel scheme. Specifically, if a URL contains the * or # characters, the Phone app does not attempt to dial the corresponding phone number."

Starting in version 1.3 you can do this by adding the Home Screen launcher. This launcher will start up the Launcher app which will then disappear, revealing the home screen. Note that this is the only way this can be accomplished.

Sorry, but there isn't any way to launch this screen.

Instead of launching Safari for the given URL, Launcher will do an HTTP GET to the URL. There are very few people who would ever need this option, but there are some home automation devices that can be controlled by hitting certain URLs. So don't enable this option unless you really know what you are doing.

Yes, starting with v2.0, Launcher supports both (rounded) square and circle icons for all launchers. If you prefer circular icons, you can choose that as the default in Options (top left button in main screen) -> Global Settings. If you wish to switch individual launchers between circle and square icons, you can do this by tapping on the icon in the launcher edit screen.

This can happen for one of two reasons:

1. If you are running iOS 9 or higher, apps that we've added recently won't show up as installed until we release a new version of Launcher.
2. Sometimes apps remove or change their URL schemes that are used to launch them

If you see the app listed in the All Launchable list and it says it doesn't appear to be installed, you can select the "Create Anyway" option and see if the launcher works or not. If it works fine, then it was probably reason #1 and you can continue using the launcher. However, if you get and error message or the app doesn't launch properly, then it is likely reason #2. In this case, you can contact us at the support address below and we can look into whether we can update the URL scheme to one that works or not.

We'll look into a way to add more multi contact options in the future, but for the time being you can edit the existing options to launch any URL you want. For instance, you can update the Mail icon to launch your favorite mail client instead.

To do this, first enable the "Show URL on launcher edit" switch in the Options -> Global Settings menu.

Then edit a launcher to email your friend with your favorite email client. Copy the URL in the URL field.

Then edit the multi contact launcher you want to update. Delete the existing Mail row, if any, and add a new Custom Launcher row. In the URL field, paste the URL you copied from the other launcher. Tap on the icon to change it to the mail icon.

The location of shortcut launchers varies based on which ones you are trying to add:

• Settings app shortcut launchers can be found under the Settings app in the App Launcher list.
• Shortcut launchers that enable/disable Wifi, Bluetooth, Cellular Data, Airplane Mode, DND, and Low Battery Mode can be found under the Built-In Launchers list in the App Launcher list.
• Shortcut launchers the can launch any app can be found under the "App Store" tab in the App Launcher list. Just search for any app in the App Store. If the app you want to add doesn't have a Shortcuts icon on it, just tap on it and we'll usually add it within 24 hours.

First, you should make sure that you have followed all of the steps required for importing a shortcut into the Shortcuts app. Those steps are:

1. Run a shortcut in the Shortcuts app. THIS IS REQUIRED. The easiest way to do this is to add a shortcut from the Gallery tap and then double tap it to run it.
2. Open the Settings app
3. Tap on the Shortcuts settings entry
4. Enable "Allow Untrusted Shortcuts"

If you don't see the "Allow Untrusted Shortcuts" option in the Shortcuts Settings, you skipped step #1.

If you can properly import the shortcut, but you get an error when running it, it may be because you have Safari disabled in the Settings app -> Screen Time -> Restrictions. This appears to be a bug in iOS 13. Please re-enable Safari in order to have shortcut launchers work properly.

If you have followed these steps, then you should be able to create the shortcut launcher again and make sure to tap the Add Untrusted Shortcut button in the Shortcuts app. The shortcut launcher should then work properly.

Launcher folders are a new option in the Choose menu that you see after hitting the Add New button. They are only available for Pro Version users.

Just drag and drop the launcher onto the closed folder on the main screen. The icon should shrink slightly and when you drop it, you'll see it drop into the folder. Or you can use the copy button in the top right hand corner of the launcher edit screen to copy a launcher to another widget or folder.

With the folder open, drag and drop the launcher outside of the folder frame and that will close the folder and pop the launcher out into the main screen. If your current widget is at the maximum number of launchers, this won't work and you'll have to remove a launcher in the widget first. Or you can use the copy button in the top right hand corner of the launcher edit screen to copy a launcher to another widget or folder.

The launcher trigger icon appears in the top left corner of the widget edit screen on trigger-compatible launchers. Only launchers that can be launched from the app are trigger-compatible, so several system launchers that can only be launched from the widget cannot have triggers added.

Only launchers that can be launched from the app are trigger-compatible, so several system launchers that can only be launched from the widget cannot have triggers added.

A launcher trigger will notify you when any of the set triggers are set. So they will trigger for every time and location trigger set on a launcher.

Currently there are two known issues with triggers not firing properly:

1. If you have multiple geo triggers for the same location, there is a bug in iOS that results in them not firing properly. An example of this would be if you had two different launchers, one set to trigger when you arrived home and another to trigger when you leave home. In this case both triggers may fire when you arrive home and neither will fire when you leave. We've filed a bug with Apple on this and hope they will fix it eventually.
   
   A workaround for this issue is to create a duplicate location for each launcher trigger. So on one launcher, set it to arrive at your home location and then create another duplicate location for your home and use that for the second launcher trigger.

As long as your watch is paired to your phone and the Launcher Apple Watch app is installed on your watch, you will see a button labeled "Apple Watch" in either the Options menu or main screen of the Launcher app on your phone which you can use to configure the Launcher Apple Watch app.

The Apple Watch attempts to save energy by only transferring data occasionally and in batches. This means that it can sometimes take up to 20-30 seconds for all icons to transfer from your phone to the watch. Making lots of changes at once can sometimes overwhelm the data transfer. If you want to force the watch app to reload all icons, toggle the "Hide Launcher Labels" switch under Apple Watch Settings and wait up to 30 seconds..

The Apple Watch attempts to save energy by only transferring data occasionally and in batches. This means that it can sometimes take up to 20-30 seconds for all icons to transfer from your phone to the watch.

Sometimes the watch app needs to wake up the Launcher app on the phone in the background to start the music and that can sometimes take several seconds to complete.

Curently there are 3 meta launchers: Maps, Google Maps and Waze. Once added, clicking on a meta launcher will instantly create a new launcher which will give you directions to your current location. This is handy if you travel a lot and want to have a launcher to get directions back to a place such as your current hotel.

Think of Magic Launchers as app launchers that not only launch a certain app, but also show some useful dynamic data at the same time. The Calendar Magic Launcher shows the current day at all times and can launch a number of different calendaring apps. The Uber Magic Launcher can show you the time estimate for a car and when tapped will launch Uber and request a ride (after confirmation).

The Wifi Magic Launcher shows the number of bytes up/down in the last second for only the Wifi interface. The Mobile Magic Launcher shows the number of bytes up/down in the last second for only the Mobile/Cellular interface. The Network Magic Launcher shows the number of bytes up/down in the last second for both the Wifi and the Mobile/Cellular interface.

The Analog and Digital Clock Magic Launchers can be set to any time zone, so you can think of them as world clocks.

Currently there isn't any way to launch the Weather app and go to a specific city.

We use a different source for the weather than the Apple Weather app (or the alternate weather app you are launching), so the temperate and conditions may differ slightly.

Feel free to contact us at the support email below and request that we add the app you are interested in launching.

This could be one of several different things:

1. You need to have a working internet connection.
2. Uber needs to be available in your area.

Sorry, but Apple doesn't have any support for this so it is not technically possible at this time.

Yes, starting with Launcher v3.0, there is now an "auto-update" option on music launchers created from playlists. The playlists are updated in the background when possible, but won't necessarily update immediately.

No, not currently.

The music is being played through the normal Music app. So you can load the Music app, go to Now Playing and hit the pause button. Alternatively, you can swipe up from the bottom of the screen to reveal Control Center which has a pause button. If you upgrade to the pro version, you will be able to add music controls which contain a pause and skip buttons in the widget itself.

Music controls can be enabled in the widget settings menu for each widget.

A widget can't be any taller than one screen length. For certain devices and launcher sizes, if you are using up all of your launcher rows, there might not be any space left for the music controls. You can do any of the following to make room for the music controls:

• Reduce the size of your launchers
• Hide launcher labels
• Delete enough launchers to make space

This is a new security restriction that Apple added to widgets in iOS 11. There was evidently a malicious app that forced people to call 911 (emergency services), so now every phone call made by a third party app has to be confirmed by the user. I've filed a request with Apple to make this feature less annoying by only confirming each phone number once and not prompting again once it has been confirmed that the user wants to call the specified number, but they have yet to change this implementation. Feel free to contact Apple and let them know that this new security feature is making your phone less useful for you and hopefully they will improve it soon.

Apple removed the ability to directly launch the Settings app to specific screens starting with iOS 11. Starting with Launcher v4.0 and iOS 13, Launcher can open the Settings app to specific screens with new shortcut launchers. You can find these under the Settings app in the App Launcher list.

This is something that Apple has added in iOS 10 to make sure that users realize that they are leaving the app that they are currently running. Luckily this dialog is only shown once per target app, so once you tap "Open" you will never see it again for that app.

This is a design change that Apple made in iOS 11 which unfortunately makes it harder to access widgets. They made this same change back in iOS 10, but then reverted it in iOS 10.2. I'm hopeful they will decide to revert this change again. Feel free to send Apple feedback asking them to change the behavior back to the way it used to be.

Starting in iOS 10 the compact size of the widgets is the minimum size of the widget and you can't make widgets shorter than that. Sorry. I've filed a bug with Apple on this issue asking them to allow for shorter widgets, but haven't heard anything back from them yet.

Launcher (and all third party apps) can only use custom URL schemes to launch other apps. And unfortunately the code that executes home screen quick actions is different than the code that gets executed when an app is launched via a custom URL scheme. It's possible that the app supports those actions in both their quick actions and via their custom URL scheme, but unless they have documentation of the URL scheme, we can't launch it from Launcher. If you discover useful actions that can be launched via custom URL schemes that we don't have yet in Launcher, though, please let us know and we can add them.

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:

• Unlimited new style widgets
• Widget views which can be used to change icons automatically based on day, time and location.
• Change icon sizes
• Hide launcher icon labels

And upgrading to Launcher Premium also includes all of the benefits of our former Pro Version and Multiple Widget purchases for classic widgets.

Your pro version and multiple widget features still work with classic widgets and always will. Launcher Premium enables premium features for the new style widgets in iOS 14. It is up to you to decide if those features are worth paying for or not. But, please keep in mind that creating the new style widgets and all of their features was a major undertaking, and your purchases fund further development on the app. Thank you for your understanding.

If you upgrade to the pro version you add many more launchers (maximum number varies by device) and you get to choose from 3 different sizes of launcher icons and gain the ability to hide the launcher labels. You also unlock the Magic Launchers which show dynamic information such as current weather conditions and disk space on your device. Starting with v2.0, the Pro Version also allows you to backup and restore launchers to iCloud and it allows you to either set a custom name for the widget or hide the widget name. Starting in v3.0, you also unlock folders. You also support continued work on Launcher.

Starting in iOS 14 Apple has announced that in-app purchases will be able to be shared using Family Sharing and we plan to allow that support when it is available. Previously this was not possible.

Yes, assuming they all use the same iTunes/App Store account. Just click on the 'Restore Purchases' option in the Options menu.

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.