The new customizable Lock Screen in iOS 16 is promising, but its true usefulness will depend on third-party widget support. Recently, the CEO of The Omni Group confirmed what may be the first third-party widgets for that customizable Lock Screen. That’s right, popular task management app OmniFocus will offer its own widgets for your iOS 16 Lock Screen.
OmniFocus Widgets Confirmed for iOS 16 Lock Screen
Recently, TechRadar spoke with The Omni Group CEO Ken Case. The publication picked the exec’s brain about his thoughts on Stage Manager, his reactions to WWDC, and the state of OmniFocus 4 on macOS. It also asked about OmniFocus adding widgets for the Lock Screen on iOS 16.
Yes, and I can’t wait! We definitely plan to make OmniFocus widgets available for the Lock Screen. I love the flexibility and power provided to users by the redesign — and since Apple is using the same design language and SwiftUI implementation logic for both Lock Screen widgets and Apple Watch complications, it’s easy for us to implement both those features at once, delivering extra value to our customers.
The news will be welcome to just about anybody who uses OmniFocus for task management. The app has been one of the leaders in the genre for years. Adding widgets to the Lock Screen is high on many wish lists. Coupling that with new and updated complications for Apple Watch is sure to be a winner.
Could OmniFocus Widgets Come to Other Devices, Too?
That may not be all that’s in store for the GTD app. Case stopped short of saying the widgets were certainly coming to other devices, but he did suggest how they could prove beneficial. Case carefully acknowledged he couldn’t “imply any nonexistent plans,” but the subtext is clear. The Omni Group sees the iOS 16 Lock Screen expanding beyond the iPhone.
Case said he could easily see the widgets working well on an updated Apple TV Home Screen, on CarPlay, or on “some entirely new future device category.” Of course, the Apple TV idea seems far-fetched to me; that device doesn’t even offer a clock on its Home Screen.
Case also pointed out that OmniFocus’s Focus feature, an important part of its Mac app, will come to the iOS and iPadOS apps with version 4. He hopes to tie it into the iOS Focus Mode, but also acknowledges the software maker will need to be careful not to make it too confusing.
Or, as one of our engineers put it while channeling Dr. Seuss: “When an OmniFocus FocusFilter filters OmniFocus Folders it’s an OmniFocus Folder Focus Filter.”
That should definitely be interesting to sort out. OmniFocus for Mac has had its own Focus feature for 15 years, so trying to keep track of which is which on iOS might be tricky.