Chris Raroque

It's never been easier to do this.

I'm actually doing this for all of my apps and

This is the widget for the calorie tracking app, Amy, that I have.

So we have a home screen widget.

And again, this illustration was hand drawn by my fiance, but you can totally go generate this with AI.

But again, it does really draw your attention to the widget.

It's a really nice illustration to have here and it makes it stand out.

Same thing too, if you notice there's some background sketches there.

Also just hand-drawn on an iPad, but you can just generate these things.

But in general, something that I'm surprised I don't see a lot of developers taking advantage of is making widgets.

Because when you have them, number one, users are always very delighted when they see that.

They're like, oh, amazing, they have a lock screen widget, home screen widget, or an Apple Watch app.

I mean, think about the apps you use every day.

You were probably so excited when you were like, oh, thank God they have an Apple Watch app.

Thank God they have this.

It's a signal that this is a high-quality app when the developer's invested in a lock screen, home screen, or an Apple Watch widget.

The other thing, though, that's a bonus if you are a developer for your widget is people don't understand what a retention boost having a widget is.

Because when a user is using your app

and they open their phone, there are a thousand other apps that are trying to get their attention, especially through notifications, through other widgets.

Having a widget and taking up this much real estate on a user's device is literally a cheat code.