Creating and Editing Smart Stacks

Now, in addition to having your stacks of widgets you smart rotate, which means that they’re going to show you the widget based on Siri knowledge or machine learning, the iPhone also has a smart widget. With a smart widget. Not only will it rotate through the different widgets in that stack, but it creates that stack of widgets on its own. You do not add the widgets to that stack. Again, it uses machine learning or Siri knowledge to create the stack. Let’s take a look at smart stacks on the iPhone. Let’s go to my iPhone.

So if we look at my widgets here on my home screen, you’re going to see that this is a stack of widgets. I created the stack. I added the stocks widget. I added the photos widget. I added the calendar widget. Well, as I mentioned in the introduction, we can also add a smart stack. With a smart stack, the iPhone itself will add the widgets to that stack. Once we add that smart stack, what we’re then able to do is modify it. We can remove widgets from that stack and add other ones to it.

How do we do that? Well, the first thing we need to do is we need to add that smart stack. Now, I tap and hold on any one of the app icons or any one of the widgets. I’m going to tap and hold on my calendar widget here. We get into our jiggly mode, and then we go up to +. From here, we have our library of widgets. And when I swipe up, you’re going to see smart stack. We do have different sizes. So I tap on this, and now I swipe to view the different sizes. And again, when I add this, I am not going to be adding any of the widgets myself. It’s going to be creating the stack on its own; the iPhone will.

So now, let’s go and add this. I’m going to go with this one here. Now I tap and hold, and then I drag it up, and let’s go to my second screen here. So now, this is a smart stack. We can see when we go over to the right; we have a number of widgets in it. As you saw, I did not add those widgets. I’m going to tap on done, and now to go through these different widgets, I swipe.

It’s just another stack at this point. It does turn on smart rotate by default, which means it will show me the most relevant widget based on Siri knowledge. So if I check my weather in the morning and the weather widget is in the smart stack, it will show me the weather widget. When I first wake up.

To edit this widget, we tap and hold on it; we get a little menu, and you’re going to see at it stack. From here, I’m able to turn on and off smart rotate. You’re going to see; we have our slider to the right. I can rearrange these, and then I can also delete them. Let’s say I no longer want to have Duck Duck Go in here. I swipe this over to the left, and you’re going to see delete. I can also keep to the left to delete it.

What about adding widgets? Maybe you want to add your widget here that the iPhone did not add when you created this widget. The first thing we need to do is when he took close this. So I’m going to tap on the X, and now we need to go into our jiggling mode where we can modify our home screen as well as our widgets. So I tap and hold on any one of the app icons or any one of the widgets. I wait until they are jiggling. I go up to the + in the upper left-hand corner to access all of my different widgets. From here, I find the widget I want to add and drag it on top of that smart widget. Let’s go and add the weather widget here. I tap on it. I do have to choose the same size, so I have to choose the size here, and now I drag it up and place it on top of that other widget, my smart widget. You’re going to see, we have our thick border here, which means I’m adding this widget to that stack. I let go. And now I’ve added the weather widget to that smart stack.

So now if the first thing I do when I get up in the morning is go to this weather widget. The iPhone will know this through Siri knowledge, and then it’ll start showing this widget first thing in the morning.

So that’s a smart stack on the iPhone. With smart stacks, we do not create the stack. The iPhone will create the stack for us. Once it creates the stack. It does turn on smart rotate, which means it’s going to show us the most relevant widget based on Siri knowledge. We can add it, that smart stack. We can reorder how those widgets are in that stack. We can remove widgets, and then we can also add new widgets to that smart stack. And of course, you can also use a smart stack in the today view.

So that’s the smart stack on the iPhone.