Widgets be creepin’. Photos be peepin’.

Okay, I’m late this year. Almost a week late. But rest assured, I’m not giving up on the annual tradition of posting last year’s iPhone homescreen as we start a new year. I’ve done this in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.¹ As for 2021…

Sadly, the disruptions of 2020 continued into 2021. And in fact, they’re continuing into 2022 as I write this.² And much like 2020, my homescreen was also disrupted again in 2021 — to the tune of not one, but two widgets. Yes, I somehow became okay with trading the real estate of eight apps for two widgets. And that means three fewer homescreen apps than last year, and six fewer than two years ago. But I’m happy with it.

I mean, just look at that little one’s face…

Beyond the Photos widget, which rotates quite often and brings me constant joy (and some perhaps unintended laughs), I’m also using the Weather widget. I wish Apple would allow the Weather app icon to be dynamic itself as I probably don’t need that much real estate for the weather. But I’m also a bit of a weather junkie,³ and I find this information at a glance useful. Just don’t click on the iPad version…

And the truth with these widgets is that I cheat a bit. Both hide another widget behind them thanks to the “Stacks” feature. In the case of Weather, Reminders is right there behind it and actually in place much of the day. Behind Photos is Clock (with various times around the world) but I also let this one “Smart Rotate” and to serve up widget suggestions that it thinks I’ll find useful. Sometimes I even do!

Moving down into the actual app icons, you’ll see that Calendar has been “downgraded” from a widget back to an app. That’s in part because this app icon does dynamically update (with the date, of course). And because my Apple Watch is set to my schedule most of the time, so it felt redundant to have my next calendar event here as well.

Maps will surprise some folks — and it should. I’ve long had Google Maps here, but with iOS 15, I decided to see how far Apple has come with their product. It’s certainly prettier. And it seems solid in major cities — but, let’s be honest, there’s not a lot of travel going on to truly test this. I mainly appreciate that it feels a lot less cluttered than Google Maps these days, which continues to gain visual cruft — including, of course, ads. But yeah, I still have it on my second screen, just in case :)

Camera and Photos remain, obviously — though note that I have both the Photos widget and the app. I think about this more than I should.

Music is less new than making a return to the homescreen after a year abroad. I tried to solve my needs via widgets on other screens, but I use it too much so I recalled it. Podcasts is back in a similar way to Maps — I wanted to see Apple’s updates here. I’m still not sold, but the app is at least more responsive than it has been in year’s past and it plays well with Apple Watch.

Audible, ESPN, Reeder, NYTimes, and Economist are holdovers and remain widely used. Matter is back as well — but now out of beta, and even more robust. I’m biased here, of course, but my screen time wouldn’t lie, I live in this app.

I moved Mail out of the dock because… fuck email. But sadly, I still live in it. One day…

Universe remains… awesome. (Biased here as well.) Ulysses and Bear too for writing and note-taking, respectively.

As noted above, there’s been a slight tweak to my dock — for the first time since 2017! That was the year Mailbox went away (RIP) and Slack took the place of Messenger. This year, it’s less exciting. Messages has just swapped places with Mail. I both enjoy using it more and aspire to use it more to get email out of my inbox. Slack and Safari remain. As does Twitter, but now with cute new icons — including some limited edition ones which are perhaps too time limited? Regardless, I wish more apps were as experimental with their app icon options as Twitter is. Then again, I am paying for such innovation — it’s a part of “Twitter Blue” (happily!).

In Memorium

So what’s gone? Well, Instagram, for one. I obviously still use the service but the once unconditional love is fading quickly as they cram more junk into the app. FOCUS ON THE DAMN PHOTOS. I relegated it to the third screen in protest. I still love the simplicity of Tot, but I moved it to the second screen. I’m mildly worried about the lack of updates there. Then again, there’s something wonderful about the consistent simplicity. Overcast yielded to Podcasts as stated above, but may make a comeback — their audio enhancement such as “Smart Speed” are far superior. Same basic story with Google Maps, it may be back thanks to superior data. We’ll see. Uber and 1Password are just one screen over, Uber for obvious reasons — when it’s back on my homescreen, that’s when we’ll know the world is back to normal.

¹ And no, I didn’t post a picture in 2013, which was a huge mistake in hindsight. Part of the fun here is actually looking back at these!

² And some are pure deja vu…

³ RIP Weather Line, which got a shout out last year…

Looking Back at My 2021 Homescreen was originally published in 500ish on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.