How to add a quote widget to your iPhone Home Screen

A quote on your phone’s screen is the easiest way to see a good thought every day: you unlock your iPhone dozens of times, and every time it’s right there. All it takes is a Home Screen widget. Here’s how to add one, which size to choose and how to keep it from getting lost among your apps.

What you need

An app with a quote widget — for example, Temfy - Motivation & Quotes (free on the App Store). Home Screen widgets work on any iPhone running iOS 14 or later. Open the app once after installing it and pick your topics, so the widget shows a fitting quote right away.

How to add the widget

1. Touch and hold an empty spot on your Home Screen until the apps start to jiggle.
2. Tap Edit in the top-left corner, then Add Widget. On older versions of iOS, tap the “+” button in the corner instead.
3. Find the app by searching or scrolling the list.
4. Swipe sideways to choose a size: small, medium or large.
5. Tap Add Widget, drag it where you want it and tap Done.

Which size to pick

• Small — a square the size of four app icons. Fine for short lines; a long quote will be small.
• Medium — a full-width strip. The best balance: the whole quote with its author, and room left for your apps.
• Large — half the screen. For a dedicated “inspiration page” where nothing else is needed.

In Motivation & Quotes the widget comes in light and dark, to match your Home Screen.

Putting the widget in a Smart Stack

Short on space? Drag the quote widget right on top of another widget of the same size to make a stack you can swipe through. iPhone decides which widget in the stack to show; to keep the quote from hiding, touch and hold the stack → Edit Stack and move the quote widget to the top.

An inspiration page

A handy trick: a separate Home Screen page with just a large quote widget and a couple of essential apps. Swipe over, read the thought for the day, get back to work. You can hide extra pages: touch and hold an empty spot → tap the dots above the Dock → uncheck the pages you don’t need.

How often the quote changes

That depends on the app. In Motivation & Quotes, Premium refreshes the widget with a new quote every hour; Premium also removes the feed limit and adds quotes in notifications. You can get Premium in the app through the App Store or on the website.

If the widget is blank or doesn’t update

• Open the app at least once after installing or updating it — the widget gets its data from the app.
• Check whether Low Power Mode is on: iOS refreshes widgets less often in it.
• Remove the widget and add it again — this often helps after an iOS update.

What about Android?

Temfy - Motivation & Quotes is available for Android too — an APK from this website, no Google Play needed: the quote feed by topic, Favorites and Premium on the website.

In short

• Touch and hold an empty spot → Edit → Add Widget → choose the app and a size.
• Medium is the best balance; large is for a dedicated inspiration page.
• In a Smart Stack, move the quote widget to the top so it doesn’t hide.