Apple has brought widget support in the home screen on the iPhone. And iPhone users are quite literally going crazy over it. There’s a new trend on social media sites where users are sharing there aesthetic iPhone home screens created with widgets and custom app icons (pictures, really). You could browse these home screens on the iOS 14 Aesthetic Ideas web page.

One of the most aesthetic parts of customized iPhone home screens is the photo widget. The one that only shows a specific single photo that you choose, not the default ‘Photos For You‘ widget that Apple bundled with iOS 14.

One of the simplest ways to add an aesthetic photo widget on your iPhone is by using the Widgetsmith app.

How to Create a Photo Widget using Widgetsmith

Let’s get started by first installing the Widgetsmith app on your iPhone. Head over to the App Store and search for ‘Widgetsmith’, or just click here to open the app listing directly in the App Store on your iPhone.

After installing Widgetsmith app on your iPhone, open the app, and make sure you’re on the ‘Widgets’ tab from the navigation bar at the bottom.

Select the widget size you want to use for your photo widget. If you’re using it for creating an aesthetic home screen, you’d probably want to use the ‘Small’ size. Tap on the ‘Add Small Widget’ option at the top of the screen.

This will instantly create a ‘Small #2’ widget using the default settings of the app. To customize it, tap on ‘Small #2’ to access the widget’s settings screen.

Then, tap on ‘Default Widget’ option to get the various customization options for the widget.

Under ‘Style’ option on the widget customizer screen, scroll down until you see ‘Photo’ option under the ‘Custom’ section. Tap on it.

After you tap the ‘Photo’ option, a stacked ‘Selected Photo’ option will appear at the bottom of the screen. Tap on it to select a photo to add to the widget.

Then, tap on ‘Choose Photo’ from the expanded menu.

This will open your photos library in a stacked interface. Select the photo you want to put into the widget. Once you’re done, the selected photo should appear as follows on the screen.

Now, go back by tapping the ‘Small #2’ label on the top left corner of the screen.

The ‘Default Widget’ should now show your selected photo. You can also rename the ‘Small #2’ widget to something relevant so it’s easier to identify when adding the widget to the home screen. Once you’re done, tap the ‘Save’ option on the top-right corner of the screen.

Your photo widget is now created and you can add it to the home screen by using the Widgetsmith widget.

How to Add a Widgetsmith Widget to the Home Screen

Tap and hold on any empty space on your home screen until the icons and widgets (if any) starts to jiggle. Then, tap the ‘+ plus’ icon on the top-left corner of the screen.

The widget selector screen will open. You can either search for ‘Widgetsmith’ from the ‘Search Widgets’ bar or scroll down to the bottom and select ‘Widgetsmith’ from the list.

Depending on the widget size you chose to create for your photo widget, select either Small, Medium, or Large widget option. In this guide, we created a small size photo widget so we’ll select the ‘Small’ option.

Hit the ‘Add Widget’ button at the bottom of the screen after selecting the correct widget size.

This will add the default ‘Small #1’ (probably Date widget) on your home screen. We need to change it to the photo widget we created, so tap and hold on the ‘Date’ widget ‘Widgetsmith’ just created on your screen and select ‘Edit Widget’ from quick actions menu.

Then, tap on the ‘Widget’ selector option.

And then finally select the photo widget you created in the guide above. We kept its name ‘Small #2’ in the guide so we’ll select that option. But if you renamed it to something else, be sure to tap on the name of your photo widget only.

After selecting your photo widget from the Widgetsmith’s widget selector menu, go back to the home screen, and wait for the widget to refresh and show your photo widget on the screen.

You can create multiple photo widgets using Widgetsmith and add them to multiple pages on your home screen to complement the aesthetic look you’re trying to achieve. Photo widget is only one of the many type of widgets you can create and customize using Widgetsmith.