Please Don't Kill The "Today View"

The boys over at the Connected podcast have discussed the Today View (specifically on iPhone) the last few episodes. And late to the party, here’s my short take.

The Today View is the screen of widgets you get to when you scroll left on your Lock Screen or first Home Screen. And they were speculating that it might get removed in time, as it doesn’t get much love from Apple. They didn’t say that they wanted it to go away — but it was also clear that they wouldn’t really mind.

I would.

Because I think it serves a very specific purpose, and fits very well with my use of Home Screens.

Because I’m a One Home Screen Kinda Guy, which I change with Focus Modes. This also makes me a heavy user of the App Library and Spotlight for launching apps and shortcuts. But to me, the Today View is a perfect spot for something I have no other place for: Widgets I always want quick access to, but that I still don’t use so often that it gets a spot on my one Home Screen.

My current default Home Screen:

I have a 2x4 (medium) BusyCal widget at the top. The rest of the screen is split in two, with two 2x2 widgets (small) on the right side, and eight icons of the left. The small widgets are a Norwegian weather App, Yr, and Overcast. The icons are 1Password, SC-323PU (great calculator), Mail.app, Mona, Gluon, Lire, Narwhal 2 and Tidal. The dock has Telegram, NotePlan, Paper and Quiche Browser.

My alternate Home Screens are variants of this. I really like those eight icon slots for one-hand use — which actually is possible on my lovely 13 Mini. (Speaking of things that don't get love from Apple…)

And my Today View looks like this:

Medium weather widget, small battery and commuter widgets, medium Tesla widget, a medium widget for the 'Norwegian Venmo' called Vipps, and 2FA codes at the bottom.

1) A more detailed weather forecast

For when the little widget on the Home Screen, or the Lock Screen widget, isn’t quite enough.

2) Battery information

3) The (great) commuter app here in Oslo

This is also a stack with some QR codes for memberships.

4) The controls for my car

(Please don’t steal it, even though it’s unlocked and air-conditioned.)

5) Vipps, the “Norwegian Venmo”

“Send”, “Ask for” and “Scan”.

6) 2FA codes

This is an old-style widget — and I think those are getting removed in iOS 18. I’ve moved most of my 2FA over to 1Password, though, so I don’t need a widget as much as before. But I’d still like to see a 1Password widget in the future!

The single feature I’m most excited about in iOS 18, is the improvements to Control Center. And I get that that will replace several use-cases for the Today View. But I hope they keep it (and maybe add the ability to have it change with the Focus Mode), as I really like using one Home Screen — and that makes widget real estate really premium. So I like to have a place to shove some that I want easy access to (and often from the Lock Screen)!

However, I also agree with what I think Federico Viticci said: I don’t use widgets quite as much as I thought I would.