How To Add, Use & Edit Smart Stack Widget In iOS 14
Smart stack widgets in iOS 14.
Glances can be also used as shortcuts, because a single tap will open the app in question.
iOS 14 widgets come in various shapes and sizes. Both stock and third party apps can integrate Home Screen widgets for iPhone and iPad. Amongst all, there is one special glance called Smart Stack.
The Smart Stack widget is a collection of multiple widgets housed in a single one.
The Smart Stack can be used in the default configuration provided by iOS, or users can customize it and even build their own Smart Stack glance from scratch.
How To Add Smart Stack To Home Screen
1. Long-press on an app icon or on an empty space on your iPhone Home screen.
Tip: If you chose the first option tap ‘Edit Home Screen’ from the quick actions menu.
2. Tap the ‘+’ icon available in the top-left corner of the screen.
3. Scroll and tap on Smart Stack.
4. Swipe for the desired size and layout.
5. Tap on ‘Add Widget’ to display the Smart Stack on the iOS / iPadOS Home Screen.
How To Use Smart Stack Widget
iOS 14 learns your usage pattern and is able automatically rotate the widgets in your Smart Stack to suggest and display the most relevant glance for the time of day.
It’s not perfect, so if you’re not happy with what your getting you can always swipe-up or down to navigate to the desired widget from the Smart Stack.
Tap on the displayed widget to open the app in question.
How To Edit The Smart Stack
Long-press Smart Stack and tap on ‘Edit Stack’ to customize this widget. You can perform the following edits:
1. Enable/Disable Smart Rotate – Tap the toggle next to the Smart Rotate label to turn the feature On or Off. The default state is active and it allows the Smart Stack to rotate its widgets and proactively display the most useful glance for you.
2. Tweak The Order – If you’re not satisfied by the order of the widgets from the Smart Stack you can change it. Simply, drag & drop the label of the widget to the desired location.
Tip: You can sort more important glances at the top. This way you won’t need to swipe too much to reach them.
3. Delete Glances – If you don’t like all the widgets included by iOS 14 in the default Smart Stack, you can easily remove them.
How To: Swipe-left on the widget label to unveil the red ‘Delete’ option. Tap it and the glance will be removed
How To Add Widget To Smart Stack
Adding a new glance to the Smart Stack isn’t that straightforward. At the time of writing there’s no option to add it from the ‘Edit Stack’ menu.
Tip: What you have to do is first add the widget, that you want to the Smart Stack, to the iOS Home Screen.
The glance has to be the same size with the Smart Stack.
Next, drag & drop the widget over the Smart Stack. It will be automatically included in the Stack. This is similar with adding an app to a Folder.
How Create Your Own Smart Stack Widget
Using the same pattern as the one described above you can create your own Smart Stack from scratch. You only need that the widgets that you plan to add to your Stack to have the same size.
If that’s the case just drag & drop them one on top of the other and you’ll create your personalized Stack. iOS makes it smart by default, because the ‘Smart Rotate’ featured is enabled automatically.
Smart Stack Widget Tips & Facts
– An iOS 14 Smart Stack can include widgets belonging to both stock and third party apps.
– Change the location of a Smart Stack by entering the Home Screen edit mode. Drag & drop the widget to the desired location.
– A Smart Stack can be deleted from the quick actions menu or from the Home Screen edit mode.
– To change the size of a Smart Stack you have to delete the stack and add it or create a new one with a different size.
Do you use Smart Stack on your iPhone or iPad Home Screen? Let us know in the comments section available below? Questions are also welcomed and happily replied.
Related: You can also read our in depth review of the iOS 14 Home screen Clock And Weather widgets.
Smart stack is driving me crazy. I don’t want three of the six things that are in it. I can delete them, but I can’t figure out how to add anything to it. All the Google links are not helpful. Also, can I manually rotate through it? Every time I try to do that, it just turns gray. None of the directions have been helpful. Also, directions to see abs have to be the “same size,” but how do you know what size they are?
Karen thanks for commenting. Here is what you have to do.
1. Long-press Home Screen until apps start to jiggle.
2. Tap the ‘+’ icon in the top-left corner.
3. Tap on Smart Stack and swipe-right for the desired size.
4. Tap Add Widget and press Done, in the top-right corner.
5. Long-press on the Smart Stack.
6. In the quick-actions menu tap on Edit Stack.
7. Swipe-left from the right-edge on a widget name to delete it from the Smart Stack.
8. Drag&Drop the 3-horizontal-lines next to each widget to change the order of the widgets in the stack.
9. Disable Smart-Rotate if you don’t want Siri to rotate your widgets.
Hope this helps!
Karen, the instructions “How to Add Widget to Smart Stack” in the article appear to be exactly what you’re looking for. Also, “How to Use Smart Stack” tells you how to manually swipe through the stack. Lastly, you know what size a widget is by looking at it.
Don, thanks for confirming that instructions are clear.
Hi,
I recently updated my iPhone os to 14.4. After that Smart Stack does not change automatically. I tried hard reboot and changed widgets but nothings worked. Please advise.
Do you have ‘Smart Rotate’ enabled? Long-press on the Smart Stack widget and select ‘Edit Stack’ from the quick actions menu!
I have this same issue. Smart Rotate is on, but it never rotates.
I have seen posts elsewhere with the same issue, but never any help to fix it.
Thanks for reporting this. Are you running the latest iOS version?