Widgets and Live Activities
Boost Retention with built-in iOS features
Are you only using push notifications to improve retention for your app?
If you’re not exploring widgets and live activities for your iOS app, you might be missing out.
Will every user add a widget? No.
But those who do will likely be much more retained.
Live activities allow you to add a temporary “widget like” experience to the lock screen or home screen.
If these make sense for your app, it can be a pretty cool added experience for your users.
And boost retention by offering a way to engage outside of your app.
Let’s check out a few different ones.
Calm has affirmations and then also suggests meditations to listen to.
Fabulous has streak reminders as well as Quotes and Reflections
Workout apps like Ladder and Strava have suggested workouts and your weekly or monthly progress
Sleep apps like RISE and Endel help you track your energy levels and circadian rhythms.
Headway has daily motivation
Flighty shows your next flight (what a surprise!)
Tiimo has some suggested widgets only available to Premium users.
And they offer the ability to start your focus timer.
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All these widgets are nice, but how do you get someone to actually add it?
Think about where the prompt should occur and how to connect it with some value for the user.
Duolingo has nice prompt that clearly shows you how to add one:
You may want to display a slide up “drawer” with an option to display these instructions or not.
Here is an example from ME+:
More and more apps have been adding Live Activities for an experience even more integrated into the phone.
The cool thing about Live Activities is they can show on your lock screen and use the dynamic island.
This also causes the potential for abuse and annoyance to users since you can force it onto a user’s home screen.
It’s more important here to follow Apple guidelines and not try to take advantage of the capabilities.
Duolingo primarily uses them for streak and lesson reminders:
Simple is an intermittent fasting app. They have reminders and timeline about your eating:
Then there are much more functional Live Activities like this parking app:
I wrote about Explode in a past newsletter (link below), but they use Live Activities for early activation and driving usage:
As you can see, Explode gives you free access based on this early usage. But they also are using it for promotional purposes which is against Apple guidelines (more on that below).
Dr. Kegal app uses a similar approach to prompt initial usage.
And many screen time or focus apps (Forest example) use timers or trackers like these. This is pretty much the same as what’s in the app, but extends the functionality outside to your home screen.
It’s important to understand how Apple intends you to use Live Activities so you can stay within their guidelines.
These are all phrased as “Best Practices”, so it seems like Apple is giving a bit more leeway into how you interpret these guidelines. But they certainly would you like you to adhere to their direction.
✅ What You Can Do
Live Activities should:
Provide timely and useful updates related to ongoing events in your app (e.g., delivery tracking, workout sessions, sports scores, rideshare ETAs).
Be used for finite-duration tasks, with clear start and end states.
Update responsibly and not spam or distract the user.
Common examples Apple supports:
Sports scores
Ride-hailing trip progress
Food delivery status
Navigation directions
Workouts or timers
❌ What You Cannot Do
No Marketing or Promotions
You cannot use Live Activities to promote content, push ads, or display marketing messages.
This includes upsells, cross-promotions, or messages encouraging users to reopen the app.
No Unrelated or Static Content
You may not use Live Activities for non-live or static information.
The feature must reflect real-time, dynamic content tied to a user's in-progress task.
No Excessive Background Updates
Abuse of system resources or battery (e.g., overly frequent updates) can result in rejection.
Apple expects updates to be efficient and justified by the context.
No Infinite or Indefinite Duration
Activities must have a clear endpoint.
Using them for ongoing passive presence or "always on" branding is not allowed.
No Misuse of Location or Sensitive Data
Live Activities should not expose personal, private, or sensitive user data unnecessarily.
Follow all data privacy guidelines and inform users if data is used.
No Inappropriate or Misleading Content
The content must not be offensive, misleading, or violate other App Store rules (e.g., impersonation, misleading functionality).
And a few documentation links:
How will you use Widgets and Live Activities?
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