Notification Center

Feeday offers a quick peek at Instagram from Notification Center

Lory Gil ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

One of my favorite social networking sites right now is Instagram. I love looking at pictures more than reading about how someone feels about the weather today. Pictures really can be worth a thousand words and can make you feel more connected to friends than a sentence.

Feeday is a third-party widget that puts the last couple of posts from your Instagram feed right in Notification Center so you can get a quick view of your feed without having to open the app. Check out our app review of Feeday below.

eMail Widget lets you view and manage your inbox from Notification Center

Lory Gil ∙ Updated May 7, 2018

When it comes to the daily task of rummaging through email messages, I spend the first 30-minutes of my workday just trying to get my inbox under control. I can quickly delete or archive more than half of them, which helps me feel like I've made some progress

eMail Widget is a Notification Center app that allows users, not only to see new messages in their inbox, but perform a few basic actions in order to keep things under control without having to open a dedicated app.

NCMeters: add customizable system vital meters to Notification Center

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

NCMeters is a non-intrusive tweak for monitoring system vitals via Notification Center. It allows you to check CPU usage, memory and storage usage, and monitor both upload and download speeds.

NCMeters only runs when you have Notification Center open, so it's not going to be overly taxing on system resources when going about your daily business. To ensure accuracy, data is collected using traditional command line tools.

Along with those basics, NCMeters features quite a bit of customization. Have a look at our video walkthrough and see for yourself.

Favorite Contacts Launcher lets you call, message, or FaceTime anyone from Notification Center

Josh Gallagher ∙ March 27, 2015

Favorite Contacts Launcher allows you to have instant access to your most used numbers. Once downloaded, this app will allow you to quickly call, text, or FaceTime anyone directly from Notification Center. The concept sounds extremely useful to non-jailbreakers, but does this launcher deliver?

Breaking brings an RSS feed reader widget to Notification Center on iOS and OS X

Lory Gil ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

If you are a news junkie, you probably have all sorts of alerts set up to let you know the moment a story breaks. Wouldn’t it be nice if your RSS feeds were available right in the Today view of Notification Center?

Breaking – News in your Today tab populates your favorite news feeds in Notification Center for iOS and OS X, so you access stories you want to read without having to open a special app for it. All of your news is right in front of you, available with one swipe or click.

How to add more Notification Center widgets on Mac

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated February 11, 2020

Like its iOS counterpart, Notification Center for Mac comes bundled with several stock Today widgets to get you started. However, it's possible to add third-party widgets to Notification Center's Today View by means of the Mac App Store and via direct download. Inside, we'll highlight how to add new widgets to Notification Center along with several widget recommendations.

This widget adds a phone dialer to Notification Center

Lory Gil ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

There are dozens of apps out there that offer a streamlined interface so you can find contacts and make phone calls quickly and easily, but how many can you count will put a widget on your Lock screen so you can make phone calls in Notification Center?

YoBu is a Notification Center extension that allows you to search for contacts by name or number, and then call them right from the Today view on your Lock screen.

1SecMoney review: record income and expenses right from Notification Center

Lory Gil ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

How people keep track of finances is a personal preference. Some like complex, feature rich programs that allow them to connect and follow all of their income and expenses meticulously. Others are happy with simplicity.

1SecMoney is a simple finance-tracking app that lets you add daily additions and subtractions for your bank and credit card accounts. You can also input items directly from Notification Center using the Today widget. We’ve got a hands-on app review of 1SecMoney for you today.

Cheatsheet: a widget for all those little things you can’t remember

Sébastien Page ∙ February 5, 2015

Your license plate, your driver license number, your hotel room number, the combination of your locker at the gym. All these are little things that we sometimes need to have quick access to but not necessarily remember. This is where an app like Cheatsheet comes in handy. Simply write things down in Cheatsheet and refer to them at any time directly from the widget in the Today tab of Notification Center.

NC brings a Twitter widget to Notification Center

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated February 5, 2018

Up until a few months ago, if you wanted to have a Twitter widget in Notification Center, you would have had to go the jailbreak way and find a tweak that would allow you to do just that. But since the release of iOS 8, and Apple opening up its mobile operating software for developers to create extensions, we've seen some really neat apps and widgets taking advantage of the new possibilities. NC is one of those.

NC is a new app that lets you add a Twitter widget to the Today tab of Notification Center, and from our usage of the app for the last few days, we can say it works as advertised.

TodayRemote is a widget with iTunes playback controls

Lory Gil ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

With Apple’s Remote app, you can access your computer’s iTunes playback controls so you don’t have to get off the couch to switch songs. But, unlocking your iPhone, opening the app, and selecting your device is still just way too much work.

TodayRemote lets you control playback of iTunes right from the Lock screen of your iPhone. You’ll never have to work for your music again.

This widget lets you play Minesweeper directly from Notification Center

Sébastien Page ∙ January 22, 2015

Minesweeper Widget Edition is a new app launching in the App Store today that, as you might have guessed, brings a playable Minesweeper widget to the Today tab of Notification Center. Developed by the same guy who made Overglide, another playable Notification Center widget, Minesweeper Widget Edition promises to offer short and quick gaming to make your wait in line at the grocery store ever so enjoyable.