IOS 14 Smart Stack is a must-have for any iPhone user. This is what you need to know

With the release of iOS 14, Apple has added a ton of fancy new features to its iPhone. If you haven’t installed it yet, you should prepare your iPhone, then download iOS 14. Once done, get ready to have fun customize your home screen, taking advantage of a new pseudo-app drawer called App Library and experimenting with widgets anywhere on the home screen. Yes, iOS 14 looks a lot like Android.

Read more: IPhone 12 release date: Apple’s virtual event for its long-awaited 5G smartphone is October 13

Apple’s signature widget is called the Smart Stack and it combines various app widgets that you can scroll through on your own or let your iPhone decide which app to show you and when, depending on how you use your phone.

For example, if you check the weather and then your calendar first thing in the morning, Smart Stack will likely include both apps and automatically show you the forecast followed by your schedule the first time you unlock your iPhone in the morning. Then if you routinely check your activity stats after dinner, the stack will show you the activity widget at that time of day.

Here’s the best part: you don’t have to leave the stacked widget up to Apple. You can create your own Smart Stack, selecting the included applications as you like. Next, we will show you how to customize a stack.

Now playing:
Watch this:

Try a custom home screen using iOS 14

11:13

Not seeing widgets? Try this

The release of iOS 14 also means that developers can update their apps, adding new features specific to the update, like widgets. 

If you’ve updated your apps and read in the update notes that widget support has been added, but you don’t see the app listed when you try to add the widget, here’s what I’ve figured out. After updating the app, you need to open it before the widget will show up as an option. You don’t have to do anything special. Just let it fully load, and then you should see the widget as an option.

Create a custom Smart Stack just like you would an app folder

You don’t have to learn any new steps or techniques to build your own stack — if you’ve ever deleted an app or rearranged your home screen, you’re already a pro. If you haven’t, well, it’s still easy. 

Prior to iOS 14, you had to long-press on an app icon in order to activate the Edit Home Screen feature. That method is still available, but there’s a shortcut now:

1. Long-press on your display between the apps in the dock and the first row of apps on your home screen, like this:

2. Tap on the + icon in the top-left corner of the screen and then scroll through the list of available widgets. 

Locate one of the widgets you want to include in your personalized stack. You can either drag and drop the widget to your screen or tap on the + at the top of the screen.

Keep in mind, any widgets you add to a stack will need to be the same size, so you can’t have one small, two medium and three large widgets in your stack. Instead of tapping on the + icon to add a bunch of widgets to your screen before stacking them, I recommend dragging and dropping the widgets to your home screen directly from the widget picker. It saves you a step since you’re going to end up moving it yourself anyway, and it prevents the apps on your iPhone’s home screen from being arranged and then rearranged as your phone makes room for the widgets. 

3. Stacking widgets follows the same process as creating a folder for apps — drag one widget on top of another. 

Repeat that process, adding widgets until you’re happy with your creation. You can scroll through your stack at any time, or let your iPhone automatically switch for you. As far as I can tell right now, there’s no limit to how many widgets you can add to a stack. I found three or four to be the sweet spot — I was able to quickly scroll through them and find the information I wanted, without feeling it like was too much effort. 

4. If you change your mind and want to remove a widget or change their order, long-press on the stack and then select Edit Stack from the popup menu. Change the order by dragging each widget’s name up or down. You can remove a widget by swiping to the left across the name to reveal the Delete button.

If a widget can be further customized, like Apple’s Weather widget, which allows you to change the location used for the forecast, you can make changes by long-pressing on the specific widget and then selecting Edit [app name].

Pretty good, right? We have found many more features in iOS 14 that we love so farincluding plenty of accessibility features that will be of great help. This is how you can prepare your iPhone before installing iOS 14.