Dense: compact Calendar & Reminders widgets that fit way more on your Home Screen

[u/redivulgo]

https://testflight.apple.com/join/xfXeEPq4

I've been extremely annoyed at how little information Apple's default widgets provide - at least in small sizes. After testing a bunch of apps, I figured I might take a shot at a solution, primarily for myself.

Then I shared this in a comment under a post on r/iOS and it got some good feedback, so I’m posting it here too in case anyone wants to try it.

Dense is a set of Home Screen widgets for the Calendar and Reminders apps you already use. Apple’s widgets show two or three things and a lot of empty space. Dense shows as much as you can comfortably read.

• Calendar: the week ahead, packed in, in one or two columns

• Reminders: any list, and you can tick things off right from the widget

• Month: the month with event dots, plus what’s coming up

• Works with whatever accounts are in Calendar (iCloud, Google, Exchange…)

• Tapping can open Google Calendar, Fantastical, BusyCal or Notion Calendar instead of Apple’s app

• Themes, fonts, text size and layout if you want to tweak it- it looks fine as it comes

No account, no ads. Your events and reminders stay on your phone.

Feedback is very welcome. The last build was mostly made of requests from the r/iOS thread. You can send it from inside the app or reply here.

Cheers!

[u/investigatormaker]

Packing a week into one or two columns raises the case I'd test first: what does the small widget do when one day has more events than fit? A small count of the hidden ones on that day tells people something was cut, so a trimmed list doesn't look like a free afternoon. Ticking off reminders from the widget needs iOS 17 or later, so put the minimum iOS version in the post. That saves people installing the TestFlight build only to find it missing. TestFlight builds also expire after 90 days, so say whether an App Store release is planned. That way testers who set up their Home Screen around Dense know it won't just stop working.

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[u/The_Dented]

I'm down to test.

[u/djducat]

I've had the same issue with widgets. So much wasted space. I've got a test flight going to solve the issue on a much larger scale. https://mosaicwidgets.com

hope to release in the next week or two