X App for iOS: New Widgets for Lock Screen and Home Screen

X (Twitter) has rolled out a set of widgets for its iOS app, enabling users to add feeds to their Home screen as well as a real-time notification count to their Lock Screen. Apple actually teased Twitter Home screen widgets at WWDC 2020 during its iOS 14 preview, but they never came to anything, until now.

Home Screen and Lock Screen Widget Functionality

Regarding the interface options, the Home screen widget offers only one kind, called "X News Highlights," which displays headlines of what's trending on the social media platform. The widget is available in three sizes. Furthermore, there's more to be said for the Lock Screen widgets, which all come in larger and smaller kinds.

The available Lock Screen widgets include the following features:

  • X Notifications: shows the user's notification count.
  • X Messages: displays the number of unread messages in X Chat (encrypted DMs).
  • Grok AI widgets: one for jumping straight into chat and one for voice conversations.

The Vision of an "Everything App"

These updates align with the platform's broader evolution, as Musk’s main goal is to make X an everything app or super app. And he’s already on his way to achieving that. For instance, Elon Musk announced new video and audio call features on X. In a tweet, newly appointed X CEO Linda Yaccarino said that the X service would be a “global marketplace for ideas, goods, services and opportunities.” This would include payments and banking alongside other forms of media.

Major Changes and Subscription Services

Since taking over, several huge changes have been made to the app. Here are some of the major modifications:

  • Subscription services: The famous blue tick on Twitter would now cost users US$8 a month on X.
  • Ad revenue: X also rolled out advertisement revenue sharing with content creators.
  • Reading limits: Verified users can read 10,000 posts a day, unverified users get 1,000 posts, and new unverified users only get 500.
  • Future features: Payments features are also slated for introduction to X in the near future.

Earlier this month, Apple released iOS 26.2, following more than a month of beta testing. It is a big update, with many new features and changes for iPhones, providing the perfect environment for these new mobile software integrations.