Apple released the fifth public beta of iOS 18 on August 20, more than two months after the tech giant announced the software at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. In addition to more ways to customize your Lock screen And Home screenThe new operating system also lets you resize widgets on your home screen and quickly convert your apps into widgets.
In previous versions of iOS, you had to delete a widget if you didn’t like its size. After deleting it, you had to go through the whole process of choosing the right size, adding it to your screen, and then finding the right place for it. Now you don’t have to go through those extra steps and you can resize your widget instantly.
Read more: Everything you need to know about the iOS 18 public beta
I recommend only downloading a beta on a device other than your primary device. Since this is not the final version of iOS 18, the update may be buggy and battery life may be short. These issues are best addressed on a secondary device. I download betas on my old iPhone XR to keep issues away from my iPhone 14 Pro.
Note that the beta is not the final version of iOS 18, so more features may be available on your iPhone when iOS 18 is released. Apple said iOS 18 would be released this fall, but there is no final date yet.
Here’s how to add and resize widgets from your home screen in iOS 18 betas.
How to add widgets to your home screen
Long press on an app until a menu appears, then you’ll see some new tiled icons in the form of various widgets.
You can transform the Photos app into four widgets of different sizes.
Some apps, like Weather, show four different size options: the app icon, a small tile, a longer tile, and then a large tile that looks like a whole page. Other apps, like Contacts, show just the tile icon and another tile option. Tap the widget of the size you want and your app will expand in real time on your home screen. However, some apps, like News, don’t have widgets, so you won’t see these options.
Before the beta versions of iOS 18, you had to long press on your home screen and tap the plus sign (+)-Log in at the top right of your screen and then look for the right widget. Now you can easily add widgets without having to search for them.
How to resize widgets on your home screen
You can also resize widgets in the same way. Long press on a widget until the menu appears, then select the widget size you want to try.
If you’ve arranged your apps a certain way on your home screen, adding or resizing widgets will likely disrupt your custom layout. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a way to lock custom app layouts, so you may need to rearrange your apps again after adding or resizing a widget.
Remember that iOS 18 is still in beta, so this feature may be buggy or not work properly. There will likely be more betas before the operating system is released to the public, giving Apple plenty of time to fix any issues. However, there is currently no information on when Apple will release iOS 18.
For more information about iOS 18, see my hands-on experience with the iOS 18 beta, how Remove the flashlight from your lock screen and what you should know about T9 dialing on your iPhone. You can also use our Cheat Sheet for iOS 18.
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