Learn how to add the Smart Stack widget to your iPhone or iPad Home Screen to have Siri intelligence surface the right widget at the right time, showing you relevant information throughout the day.
The Smart Stack is quite similar to the regular stack of widgets but without you having to create the stack manually.
The Smart Stack feature takes advantage of on-device Siri intelligence to surface the right widget at the right time. The system determines which widget in your Smart Stack to surface based on factors such as time, location, device activity, and more.
As an example, depending on your daily routine you might see the Apple News widget in the morning, Calendar events during the day and commute time from Apple Maps in the evening.
Also see: How to use Smart Stack widgets on Apple Watch
Add Smart Stack to your iPhone or iPad Home Screen
- Touch and hold an empty area on the Home Screen to enter jiggle mode, or hold an app or widget and choose Edit Home Screen. You can also go to the Today View and tap Edit.
- You’re now in icon jiggle mode. Tap the plus button (+) in the top-left corner to enter the widget gallery, which is the central place for all your widgets from Apple and third parties.
- Scroll down and tap Smart Stack from the list.
- Swipe left or right to choose the stack size. Tap Add Widget to add the smart stack in the chosen size to the Home Screen.
- Now drag the Smart Stack to the position you want and let go. Tap Done to exit jiggle mode.
That’s how you add a Smart Stack of widgets on your iPhone. You can add as many Smart Stacks to the Home Screens as you wish in any supported size. However, note that without customization, each may show the same information.
Customize the Smart Stack widgets
You don’t have to manually pick the widgets for the Smart Stack as Siri has already done that on your behalf the moment you created the stack based on your device usage patterns. The beauty of this feature is that you don’t need to leave the widget stacking to Apple.
But if you’d like to curate the included widgets to your liking, you can easily customize it.
Add: You can add a widget you like by dragging an existing widget from the Home Screen onto the Smart Stack.
Remove: Touch and hold a Smart Stack and choose Edit Stack. Now, tap the minus button for a widget to remove it.
Adjust per-widget options: Touch and hold the Smart Stack, and if the widget on the screen allows editing, you will see the Edit “app name” option. Tap it to make the necessary changes. For example, you can pick a city for the Weather widget, select a desired reminder list to display in the Reminders widget, or cherry-pick your favorite stocks for the Stock widget. You can also swipe manually on the Smart Stack to have the widget on the screen so you can edit it.
Note that going to the Smart Stack editing screen and turning off Smart Rotate and Widget Suggestions will significantly remove the “smartness” of the widget stack. You can learn more about it here.
Remove the whole Smart Stack
Touch and hold a Smart Stack and tap Remove Stack.
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