Shortcuts Widget on iPhone: Add It and Choose Your Shortcuts

The Shortcuts widget runs your shortcuts from the Home Screen with one tap. Add it from the widget gallery like any other widget. The small size holds one shortcut you pick, and the larger sizes show the shortcuts in one of your Shortcuts folders, so the folder decides what appears.

Add the Shortcuts widget

1. Touch and hold the Home Screen background until the apps jiggle.
2. Tap Edit, then Add Widget to open the widget gallery.
3. Scroll down and tap Shortcuts.
4. Swipe to choose a size, tap Add Widget, move it into place and tap Done.

These steps follow Apple’s Shortcuts widget guide ↗. Labels in the gallery may differ slightly between iOS versions.

Choose which shortcuts it shows

• Small widget: touch and hold it, tap Edit Widget, tap the shortcut name and pick another one.
• Larger widgets: touch and hold, tap Edit Widget, tap the folder name and pick a folder. The widget shows the first shortcuts in that folder.
• Custom selection: in the Shortcuts app, create a folder just for the widget, move the shortcuts you want into it and put them in the order you like.

If you have no shortcuts yet, Apple’s guide to creating a custom shortcut ↗ walks through building one, for example a shortcut that starts a timer, sends a message you use often or opens a website.

What happens when you tap

The shortcut starts inside the widget and shows a progress indicator. Tap the cancel button to stop it. If an action cannot finish in the widget, the Shortcuts app opens. If an action needs input, the shortcut pauses so you can enter it. Apple’s guide describes this behavior, and it is why simple shortcuts with few prompts work best from the Home Screen.

The Siri Suggestions widget can run shortcuts too, but it picks them for you based on your habits. Use the Shortcuts widget when you want a fixed set.

Widget or Home Screen icon

The widget takes more space but holds several shortcuts. A single shortcut can also sit on the Home Screen as its own icon with a custom name and image, using Add to Home Screen in its details, as shown in Apple’s Home Screen shortcut steps ↗. That is the method behind custom app icons, which our guide to changing app icons explains. To fit the widget into a busy page, see our widget stacks guide.