iOS widgets are useless if they don’t update in the background. I am very underwhelmed and sad about widgets. 😔
A widget that doesn’t update is an app icon that takes up 3 more squares than necessary…
Am I missing something? I sure hope so.
@Burk so far the two widgets I am using currently are Carrot’s Weather and GoodTask’s. There are both pretty solid. Another one I use every now and then is Drafts’s but that one doesn’t need to update at all ¯_(ツ)_/¯
@Burk Surely they must update? I’ve got a 3rd party weather widget that updates regularly. Although, maybe not while viewing it? 🤔
@Burk Maybe… Your new avatar makes me think about Aperture. Now that Apple are a services company, maybe the Aperture/Logic/Final Cut combo will come back as a subscription package?
@Burk I use the Sleep++, Pedometer++, Cardiobot, and Apple’s Activity widgets and they update me with the latest information. Maybe it depends on the app?
@Burk Any chance you have your device in low power mode? That will prevent some widgets from updating.
@Burk adding to the replies here. I’m currently using native widgets for calendar, weather, stocks, photos, activity/fitness, and Pedometer++. All of them update in the background. I find the photos one the most delightful as it has surfaced photos I had forgotten about.
@pratik this is great news! I think I need to go down the fresh install route. Will be doing that with insert new iPhone coming insert release date!
@Burk I would not expect that to be necessary, but perhaps it is.
Regardless, iOS is finicky about giving apps background time. If a widget is checking a web service directly, it cannot update more often than roughly once every five minutes. If it is relying on the app to do that, it typically cannot update more than once every 15 minutes.
There are numerous reasons why apps cannot get background time, and most reasons probably apply to widgets updating on their own as well. Apps do not get background time when in low power mode. Each app also has an individual Background App Refresh setting in the Settings app. Apps do not get background time after being force quit until they are reopened. Finally I have observed that an app is unlikely to get background time during the first 48 hours or so after installation.
I think iOS only gives an app background time if it has been launched recently. So if you have a widget that you like whose app you never open, I think that widget might stop getting background time. I could be wrong about this.
As a developer answering customer support inquiries, I wish there was some setting I could point customers to that would guarantee background refresh happening every n minutes, battery life and all other factors be damned. But no such luck.
Regardless, I would bet that most widgets have implemented an ability to update themselves when iOS lets them. I agree that a widget that only updates itself when using the app is silly in most cases.
@johnbrayton thanks for the detail! I can definitely understand your frustration with not being to say “it works like this every time and that’s the normal expected behavior”.. Appreciate the help! I suppose it could also be some variation in how each developer is implementing it, or maybe it’s more “background refresh” yes or no.