If you have a relatively new iPhone (6s and above) you can take advantage of the pressure-sensing 3D Touch feature to get quick shortcuts to popular actions, right from the Home screen.
Quick Actions allows you to launch an app straight to a particular stage to save extra navigation and load times. Simply deep press an app icon – that is, press down harder than you normally would – from the Home screen and the screen will blur, unveiling a menu of shortcuts. Tap any one of the options to launch the app straight into the chosen function.
These include quick access to popular actions like Take Selfie from the Camera app icon, Play Beats 1 from Music or Directions Home from Maps. You can slide your finger to any of these options or just tap it to launch the action. Many of Apple’s native apps already support Quick Actions, plus a handful of third party apps – most notably Facebook and Instagram.
Widgets
In addition to the quick shortcuts, some apps will also show a widget previewing important information straight from the app – for example, your next planned event in Calendar, the current weather in Weather, or the time it would take you to get home in Maps.