How to add a countdown widget on iPhone

A countdown you have to open an app to see is easy to ignore. A widget puts the number where you already look dozens of times a day: next to your apps, or under the clock before the phone is even unlocked.

The steps below work for any countdown widget app on a recent version of iOS. After that, this guide covers how the widgets in Doom Count for iPhone work, including what they do on a checkpoint day.

Before you start

A widget can only show a countdown that exists. Open your countdown app, create the countdown first (a title and a deadline is enough), and then go and add the widget. The widget gallery only lists apps you have opened at least once.

Add a countdown widget to the Home Screen

1. Touch and hold an empty spot on your Home Screen until the apps jiggle.
2. Tap Edit in the top corner, then Add Widget.
3. Search for your countdown app and tap it.
4. Swipe to pick a size, then tap Add Widget.
5. Drag the widget where you want it and tap Done.

The widget now shows a countdown, but perhaps not the one you want. To change it, touch and hold the widget and tap Edit Widget. Most countdown apps let you choose the countdown here. Some also let you change how it looks.

Add a countdown widget to the Lock Screen

Lock Screen widgets are smaller and drawn in a single tint, so they suit one number and a few words.

1. Unlock your iPhone, then touch and hold the Lock Screen until Customize appears.
2. Tap Customize, then Lock Screen.
3. Tap the space under the clock. For a one-line widget, tap the date above the clock instead.
4. Find your countdown app and tap the widget you want.
5. Tap the new widget to choose its countdown, then tap Done.

Step 3 matters because the Lock Screen has two separate places for widgets. The row under the clock takes circles and rectangles. The line above the clock takes a single line of plain text, and it replaces the date.

Which size to pick

Where	Size	Good for
Home Screen	Small	One number and a title. Takes the space of four app icons.
Home Screen	Medium	The number plus a picture of progress, such as a grid of days or a bar.
Home Screen	Large	The full picture. Best for long countdowns where every day is drawn.
Lock Screen	Inline	One line of text above the clock, for example "30 days · Marathon day".
Lock Screen	Circular	A ring or gauge with the days left in the middle.
Lock Screen	Rectangular	The title, the days left and a small bar.

If you are unsure, start with the small Home Screen widget and one Lock Screen widget. You see the Lock Screen far more often than any Home Screen page, so that is where a deadline does the most work.

How it works in Doom Count

Doom Count has one widget that comes in all six of the families in the table above: small, medium and large on the Home Screen, and inline, circular and rectangular on the Lock Screen. You add it with the same steps. Search for Doom Count in the widget gallery, or find it in the list when you customise the Lock Screen. The same guide, with pictures of each step, is in the app's Settings under Widgets.

What is free

Many countdown apps let you build a countdown and only then reveal that the widget costs money. Here is the split in Doom Count, stated up front:

• Free: the small Home Screen widget and every Lock Screen widget (inline, circular and rectangular).
• Pro: the medium and large Home Screen widgets.

If you add a medium or large widget without Pro, your countdown appears softened behind a note that those sizes need Pro. The small widget and the Lock Screen widgets show the real number with no catch.

Choose the countdown and the style

Touch and hold the widget and tap Edit Widget. There are two settings:

• Countdown. If you leave it alone, the widget shows your pinned countdown, or the one with the soonest deadline.
• Style. "Same as the countdown" uses the style you chose when you created it. You can also give this one widget a different style.

There are 12 styles: Day grid, LED, Ring, Bar, Fill, Board, Gauge, Weeks, Clock, Calendar, Hourglass and Squares. Day grid, LED and Ring are free, and the rest come with Pro. If you pick a Pro style in the widget's settings without Pro, the widget keeps the countdown's own style.

Colours belong to the countdown, not the widget. There are six (Ember, Night, Paper, Ocean, Matcha and Fog), and you set them when you create or edit the countdown. Ember, Night and Paper are free.

Keep a title off the Lock Screen

Anyone who picks up your phone can read the Lock Screen. If a countdown is private, open it, tap Edit, and turn on Hide title on Lock Screen under More options. The inline widget then shows only the days left, and the rectangular widget shows "Deadline" in place of the title.

What the widget does on a checkpoint day

This is the part that differs from an ordinary countdown widget. In Doom Count you can add checkpoints to a countdown: dates along the way where the app asks whether you are on track. (Why that helps is covered in why a countdown alone doesn't keep a deadline.)

On most days the widget is quiet: one number, one title, one picture. On a checkpoint day it changes:

• Medium and large widgets ask "Are you on track?" with three buttons: Ahead, On track and Behind. You answer on the Home Screen without opening the app.
• The small widget shows a "Checkpoint today" chip. Tapping it opens the countdown, where you can answer.
• Lock Screen widgets say so in words. The inline widget reads "Checkpoint today" with the title, and the rectangular widget names the checkpoint on its second line.

After you answer, the widget shows your answer for the rest of that day and then goes back to normal. There is one exception. A Behind answer stays on the widget as a small marker until the next checkpoint asks again. Ahead and On track do not linger, because they are the normal state.

What it does at the deadline

The number stops at zero. It never counts up into "days ago". The widget asks "Did you make it?" and the medium and large sizes offer two buttons: Made it and Move the date. Both open the app, either to mark the countdown as done or to choose a new deadline.

If the widget looks wrong

• It shows a different countdown. Touch and hold, tap Edit Widget, and choose the right one.
• It asks you to open the app. A freshly installed app has written nothing for the widget to read. Open the app once.
• The countdown was deleted, archived or finished. A Doom Count widget switches to the top countdown on your home list instead of going blank.
• The app is missing from the widget gallery. Open the app once, then try the gallery again.

One more place for a countdown

Widgets share the Lock Screen with the clock and your notifications. If you want the countdown to be the whole background, you can set it as a wallpaper that redraws itself every night. That takes a Shortcut and about two minutes: see how to set up a daily countdown wallpaper.

Questions