When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020 and a lockdown ensued in the UK, I took the opportunity to transform my humble abode into a smart home. I invested in smart lights and cameras, leveraging Apple’s HomeKit to control these devices effortlessly through the Home app on my iPhone. Dimming lights and monitoring cameras became a seamless task.

However, despite the advent of widgets on the home screen with the release of iOS 14 in the same year, there was a conspicuous absence of dedicated widgets to control my lights and, more recently, my television directly from the home screen.

Enter Home Widget, a game-changer that allowed me to create home screen widgets—ranging from small to large—for any appliance compatible with HomeKit. The app offers three free widgets, with an option to unlock unlimited widgets for a one-time fee of $8.99 / £8.99. Home Widget tracks every smart appliance connected to your iPhone and iPad, displaying them all in an easy-to-access format.

Instead of navigating through Apple’s Home app, I can now simply tap on a widget to switch off a light when leaving a room. This has turned HomeKit and all of my smart devices into a more efficient system, eliminating the agony of reaching for an app each time I want to perform a basic function.

While Apple has made notable improvements to its Home app with iOS 16.4, the comprehensive features provided by Home Widget keep me pondering why Apple hasn’t yet incorporated similar functionality. Here’s how I’ve been creating widgets to streamline the control of my HomeKit appliances:

Creating a widget is straightforward. Launch the app, press the + icon, and you’re set. On your iPhone, you can also customize a lock screen widget, perfect for frequently-used appliances. When it comes to the home screen, you can create widgets in every size Apple offers—from a small square to a 4x4 widget that can occupy an entire home screen.

Personally, I use two widgets on my iPhone: one allows me to monitor our dog Jolly in the front room using the camera, while the other, positioned at the top of the display, enables me to control three lights across the house.

I have the flexibility to customize these widgets as I see fit—from their names to the colors and icons for each light. I find myself often changing these, simply because it's so easy to do. As we recently moved into a new house, I'm contemplating buying more lights and a smart doorbell, possibly utilizing a 4x4 widget on a separate home screen.

iPad: The HomeKit Hub?

While Apple's Home app allows for lock screen widgets, it lacks the customization and home screen widget options that Home Widget provides.

This omission feels significant. With widgets playing an increasingly integral role on iPhone and iPad devices, offering unprecedented home screen customization, the ability to add smart home controls directly onto the home screen, a feature available via Home Widget, further highlights the gap in Apple’s provision.

This disparity becomes especially evident when using Home Widget to create widgets on an iPad Pro. The ‘extra-large’ widget option, exclusive to iPad, allows for even more creative flexibility, especially if you have numerous HomeKit-connected smart devices.

This further opens the door to repurposing an old iPad into a dedicated HomeKit hub, a task that Home Widget makes a breeze. I'm considering buying an iPad mini just for this purpose.

It’s a shame that Apple isn’t facilitating these innovative scenarios. While the built-in Home app is, to be frank, adequate, I’ve found it sluggish when controlling devices. The lack of comprehensive widget support remains a missed opportunity.

This is why Home Widget stands out as one of the best apps for HomeKit. Its intuitive design allows for versatile widget creation, inspiring you to fully utilize your smart home capabilities.

We might see such features integrated into iOS 17, but for now, Home Widget perfectly meets my needs. Consequently, Apple’s Home app often remains untouched and out of sight.