iOS 15 Home Screen - How to Organise it

The Home screen is at the heart of your iPhone. It’s through the Home screen you open apps, organise them into folders, edit and use Home screen widgets and more. The previous release of the iOS operating system brought some great new features such as the App Library and using Widgets on the Home screen. Follow this guide to master your iPhone’s Home screen.

Home Screen Widgets

1 A Widget is a small piece of an app which displays information drawn from the app in question, making it easily accessible. We’ve had them for years on the Today screen (to the left of the home screen) but their abilities have now been greatly extended.

2 To add a Widget to the Home screen, tap and hold an empty space until the app icons start wobbling. Tap the + icon in the top-left-corner and you get a pop-up window, from where you can select a Widget. Tap the Widget you want to add and see a preview and description.

3 Swipe backwards and forwards through these previews and choose at what size you want the Widget to be shown. Widgets come in three sizes, based on the size of an app icon; 2x2, 2x4 and 4x4. The larger the Widget, the more space it takes but the more it shows.

4 When you’ve chosen a Widget, tap Add Widget at the bottom of the window and the Widget is added to your Home screen. With the apps wobbling, you can drag and reposition a Widget just like you can with an app icon. You can add as many Widgets as you like too.

5 Tap a Widget on the Home screen to open the app that created it. Tap and hold it for a pop-up menu that allows you to (among other things) edit the Widget. For example, if you edit the Reminders Widget, you can choose which of your reminder lists is shown.

6 There are two ways to remove a Widget. Tap and hold a blank space on the Home screen to make the apps and Widgets wobble, then tap the minus sign in the top-left-corner to remove it or tap and hold the Widget itself and select Remove Widget from the pop-up menu.

7 A Smart Stack is a series of Widgets that appear as a single Widget on the Home screen. When you open the Widgets window, the Smart Stack is at the top. Drag it onto your Home screen, then swipe up and down on it to scroll through the various Widgets on offer.

8 A Smart Stack automatically shows the Widget it thinks you’ll find most relevant, based on the way you use your iPhone. For example, if you always check the Weather app around midday for your lunchtime walk, it will show the Weather widget foremost at this time.