Learn how to use widgets and Live Activities in the Smart Stack on your Apple Watch for quick access to relevant information whenever you raise your wrist.
Apple’s software platforms support various types of widgets:
- iPhone and iPad: You have Home Screen, Lock Screen, and Today View widgets.
- Mac: Your Mac supports widgets on the desktop and in the Notification Center.
- Apple Watch: watchOS has a dedicated area on your watch face to display widgets and Live Activities.
What are Smart Stack widgets on your Apple Watch?
The Smart Stack on your iPhone or iPad is a bundle of multiple widgets stacked on top of one another. iOS dynamically rotates a Smart Stack’s widgets to show you relevant information based on how you use your device.
On the Apple Watch, the built-in Smart Stack holds widgets and Live Activities. The operating system surfaces the right widget for the moment based on time, location, app activity, and other factors. For instance, a weather widget may pop up right after you wake up in the morning. At around 9AM, the Widget Stack may switch to a calendar widget showing upcoming event. At the airport, the Smart Stack might put up a Wallet app widget with your boarding passes.
The Smart Stack reacts to your app activity. For example, it may show a Now Playing widget when you start listening to a song and hide it when the music stops—even if you haven’t added a Music widget to the Smart Stack. Similarly, the Workout widget automatically appears and disappears when you start/end your workout. It’s great!
Live Activities in the Smart Stack
Live Activities are timely updates from compatible apps that help you track the progress of your food delivery or live sports without opening an app. Live Activities show up on both your iPhone and Apple Watch. The Smart Stack in watchOS automatically surfaces corresponding Live Activity. You can also stop Live Activities from specific apps from taking over your Apple Watch face.
To dismiss a Live Activity on your Apple Watch, simply swipe left across it and hit the X button. Doing so will also remove the Live Activity from your iPhone’s Lock Screen and Dynamic Island.
Accessing Smart Stack widgets
- Go to the watch face by pressing the Digital Crown on your Apple Watch.
- Swipe up from the bottom of the screen or rotate the Digital Crown clockwise to open the Smart Stack.
- Widgets show you relevant information from apps. If you need more info, tap the widget to open its associated app.
- The All Apps button at the bottom takes you to the Home Screen.
Note: The Smart Stack is unavailable on the Siri watch face in the watchOS 10 software. Starting with watchOS 11, the Siri watch face is no longer available because its functionality has been baked into the Smart Stack.
Add widgets to your Smart Stack
Follow these steps to add a widget to your Smart Stack.
- Swipe up on the watch face to reveal your Smart Stack, then touch and hold anywhere on the screen.
- Tap the plus button at the top.
- Select an app whose widget you’d like to add to the Smart Stack.
- Swipe through the available widgets for that app, then tap one to add it to the Smart Stack.
- Hit the check mark button in the top-left corner to save changes to your Smart Stack.
Important: watchOS 11 supports no more than eight widgets in the Smart Stack. If you’re on an older watchOS version, your Smart Stack can hold four widgets.
Changing widget options
If you’ve added a specific Weather app widget like Conditions to your Smart Stack but would like to change it to another widget from the same app, follow the instructions below.
- Touch and hold the Smart Stack screen to enter edit mode.
- Tap an existing widget like Weather.
- Rotate the Digital Crown to scroll through the other widgets, then tap one to add it. Some apps only offer one widget.
- Hit the checkmark to save the changes to your Smart Stack.
Pin widgets
You can pin widgets to the top of the Smart Stack and reorder them to fit your daily routine perfectly.
- Touch and hold anywhere on the Smart Stack screen to enter editing mode.
- Tap a widget’s yellow pin icon and the tiny minus button is replaced with a “Pinned” label.
- Hit the checkmark to save the changes.
To unpin a widget, follow the steps above but tap the unpin icon instead.
Reordering widgets in the Smart Stack
watchOS shuffles the widgets in your Smart Stack depending on what it thinks you need to know at any given moment, but you can rearrange them in a specific order after pinning.
- Pin any widgets in the Smart Stack you’d like to reorder.
- Touch and hold a pinned widget and drag it up or down, then drop it in place.
- Hit the checkmark button to save your changes.
Customize the app launcher widget in the Smart Stack
By default, the last widget on the Smart Stack screen is the built-in launcher for the Music, Workouts, and Messages apps. However, you can customize the app launcher widget by replacing the default apps with ones you frequently use.
- Open the Smart Stack and touch and hold anywhere on the screen to enter editing mode.
- Scroll to the bottom to reveal the app launcher.
- Hit an app’s red minus button to remove it from the launcher widget.
- Tap the plus button and choose another app.
- Hit the checkmark icon to save the changes.
Removing widgets from the Smart Stack
Follow these steps if you no longer need a specific widget in the Smart Stack or would like to clean up the Smart Stack area.
- Access your Smart Stack widgets, then touch and hold anywhere on the screen.
- Hit the red minus button to remove the widget.
- Repeat the previous step to get rid of all unnecessary Smart Stack widgets.
- To save your changes, hit the checkmark icon.
To remove a pinned widget, you must unpin it first.
Other tips for your watch: