Widgets are a big deal in iOS 10. In addition to having new capabilities such as increased support for 3D Touch and the ability to play—and even stream—video inline, they now have a dedicated side panel on the Lock screen. Now, some people have voiced concerns about widgets having been removed entirely from the Notification Center on iOS 10.
Luckily, that’s not entirely true.
This is a short video I recorded to show how when you are inside an application, widgets are still available inside of Notification Center. It is just when you are on your Home screen that widgets have been moved to Home screen 0.
Unfortunately, getting to widgets inside the Notification Center by swiping anywhere from left to right over notifications isn’t possible.
Swiping over an empty area will do the trick, but this method can be quite problematic on an iPhone with a Notification Center choke full of missed alerts.
The best way to get to widgets involves swiping to the right across the Missed heading at the top of the Notification Center.
This, too, isn’t very user-friendly. That being said, we shouldn’t be harsh on Apple because this is the first beta of iOS 10. With subsequent betas, omissions like this one will be addressed.
So now that we know widgets are still available while working in other apps, how do you feel about their new location on Home screen 0? Would you prefer if the widgets always stayed within the Notification Center like in the past, or do you like them docked on the leftmost Home screen?