Apple Music and Spotify are both incredibly popular music players with a lot going for them. But neither one offers a ‘Now Playing’ widget for your Home Screen.
WidgetPod is a third-party app that aims to provide a solution with its own customizable playback widgets. Whichever of the two big streaming services you prefer, WidgetPod offers a handy and good-looking solution for quick access to your tunes. Here’s how to set it up.
First, download the app. It’s free to use with Apple Music but you’ll need to unlock the Pro version for full access to customizations and to use Spotify. Luckily this is a very reasonable one-off $2/£2 IAP – no subscription in sight.
The app itself is a very simple affair. On launch you’ll be prompted to hook up your Apple Music and/or Spotify accounts – follow the login prompts to grant WidgetPod access to your streaming accounts. (Rest assured the app respects your privacy and collects no data).
Once you’re in, hit the + button in the top left and choose a widget size: Small, Medium, or Large. You can then tweak the settings under Edit Setup to adjust the widget to your liking. Any changes made will be shown in the working preview at the top of the app.
Though you can’t make drastic layout changes, you can tweak every visual element, from the album art to the text display to the color of the playback controls. Experiment until you find something you like!
You can repeat this process to make multiple widgets if required.
When you’re happy, leave the app and head back to the Home Screen. Here, long press any app and choose Edit Home Screen. You can then tap the + in the top left to add widgets. Find WidgetPod from the list or use the Search bar to locate the app. You can then scroll through any widgets you’ve designed and press Add Widget to add it to your Home Screen. Here, it can be dragged around and repositioned like any other app or widget.
One important thing to note is that the widget will only give you a live update of what’s currently playing if WidgetPod is running in the background. If this isn’t working for you, start something playing and then open WidgetPod afterwards. The widget should then give you a true reflection of what’s currently playing and allow you to control playback right from your Home Screen.