WidgetPod (free / € 2.29) is a new app that overcomes an oversight by Apple for its Music app, as well as from Spotify for its own app. It adds a widget to the iOS 14 home screen to display and control the current playback. This will show you which song is playing and you can pause or restart playback, as well as change the song.
Two widget sizes are offered by WidgetPod: small (four icons) or medium (eight icons). By default, the widget displays the album art as well as the title and artist of the song currently playing. To customize this display, you have to pay the unique in-app purchase of € 2.29 and then you have your hand over the design of the widget, if you don’t want the cover, for example.
The free version of the app can control Music, the app provided by Apple. It will work just as well if you are an Apple Music subscriber as it does if you sync your files with a computer or use iTunes Match. To control Spotify, you must also pay the pro version at 2.29 €. The purchase also enables iCloud synchronization of your settings, which can be useful since WidgetPod is also available on the iPad.
Music like Spotify does offer their own widgets, but with the same basic idea: to offer suggested play. Neither one allows you to see the current song and even less to control the playback by the widget, you have to do it by opening the app or on the locked screen of iOS.
This choice is linked to a constraint of iOS 14, whose widgets are designed to be static and not dynamic. It is for this reason that WidgetPod does not show any reading progress. As for its playback controls, we feel that it is a DIY when you press on it, with a funny interface that activates briefly:
Although it’s a little weird, this DIY works well in my testing, at least with the Music app. With the pro version, you can even control what happens by touching the widget (outside the area with the play buttons) and open the Apple app. If you were expecting a playback control widget in iOS 14, it works fine.
WidgetPod requires iOS 14 and the app is not translated into English.
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