tell me about what's new with Widgets and Live Activities

Asked on 06/25/2025

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At WWDC, Apple introduced several updates to Widgets and Live Activities across their platforms. Here are some of the key highlights:

Widgets

  1. New Places for Widgets: Widgets are now available in more places, including Vision OS and CarPlay. In CarPlay, widgets can be configured in the settings app and are designed to be glanceable with large typography for easy reading on the car's display. Widgets can also be interactive on touch screens (What’s new in widgets).

  2. Relevance and Smart Stacks: Widgets have become smarter with the ability to specify relevant contexts, allowing the system to surface them intelligently in places like smart stacks. This means widgets can appear automatically at specified times or locations (What’s new in SwiftUI).

  3. Push Updates: Widgets can now be kept up to date across devices with push notifications, ensuring that the information they display is always current (What’s new in widgets).

Live Activities

  1. Integration with CarPlay and macOS: Live Activities can now be displayed on the home screen in CarPlay and are also available on macOS through iPhone mirroring. This allows users to track live activities like a coffee order directly from their car or Mac (What’s new in widgets).

  2. WatchOS Enhancements: In watchOS 11, Live Activities from iOS apps are available in the smart stack on Apple Watch. This integration allows users to track events or tasks directly from their wrist without needing a separate watchOS app (What’s new in watchOS 11).

  3. Customization and Interaction: Developers can customize the presentation of Live Activities for different platforms, such as using the small supplemental activity family for watchOS to tailor content for the Apple Watch. This ensures a consistent and optimized user experience across devices (Design Live Activities for Apple Watch).

These updates make widgets and live activities more versatile and integrated across Apple's ecosystem, enhancing the user experience by providing timely and relevant information in more contexts.

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What’s new in widgets

What’s new in widgets

WidgetKit elevates your app with updates to widgets, Live Activities, and controls. Learn how to bring your widgets to visionOS, take them on the road with CarPlay, and make them look their best with accented rendering modes. Plus, find out how relevant widgets can be surfaced in the Smart Stack on watchOS, and discover how push notifications can be used to keep your widgets up to date.

What’s new in SwiftUI

What’s new in SwiftUI

Learn how you can use SwiftUI to build great apps for any Apple platform. Explore a fresh new look and feel for tabs and documents on iPadOS. Improve your window management with new windowing APIs, and gain more control over immersive spaces and volumes in your visionOS apps. We’ll also take you through other exciting refinements that help you make expressive charts, customize and layout text, and so much more.

What’s new in SwiftUI

What’s new in SwiftUI

Learn what’s new in SwiftUI to build great apps for any Apple platform. We’ll explore how to give your app a brand new look and feel with Liquid Glass. Discover how to boost performance with framework enhancements and new instruments, and integrate advanced capabilities like web content and rich text editing. We’ll also show you how SwiftUI is expanding to more places, including laying out views in three dimensions.