‘WidgetPod’ is a new iOS app that brings Now Playing widgets for Apple Music and Spotify

iOS 14 brought the ability to add widgets to the iPhone and iPad Home screen, and Apple itself offers some widgets for apps like Notes, Reminders, and Music. However, one of my main complaints against the official Music widget is that it only shows the recently played songs.

WidgetPod is a new app that comes to solve exactly that with a Now Playing widget that works for both Apple Music and Spotify.

There are other apps that offer Now Playing widgets, but WidgetPod is focused on just that — and it offers great customization options for changing the style of the available widgets. The app was built by Aditya Rajveer, the same developer as the Marvis Pro music player.

Once you open the app for the first time, WidgetPod lets you create your own music widgets to add to the iOS home screen. Users can set the widget theme to light, dark, or even choose a custom background color. It also lets you change the accent color of buttons and text, or even add a background image.

There are small and medium-sized widgets, and I’ve been enjoying all the possibilities WidgetPod offers. For instance, I’ve created a medium-sized widget that shows the Now Playing song and also offers media controls, while I also have a smaller-sized widget that only shows the album artwork and the name of the song.

Unfortunately, since the widgets in iOS 14 are not designed to have constant interaction, I’ve been experiencing some glitches when using WidgetPod — such as weird animations when tapping the play/pause buttons. But that doesn’t make the app any less cool.

WidgetPod is available for free on the App Store, but Spotify compatibility requires a $1.99 in-app purchase.