How to add a baby photo widget to your iPhone Home Screen

Touch and hold an empty part of the Home Screen until the icons jiggle, tap Edit then Add Widget, search for the app, pick a size and tap Add Widget. Then touch and hold the widget itself and tap Edit Widget to choose which baby and which memory it shows.

A phone standing on a pale oak nursery shelf beside a knitted pink bear, a stack of cloth-bound books and a vase of dried flowers

Add a baby photo widget to the iPhone Home Screen

1Enter edit mode. Touch and hold an empty area of the Home Screen until the app icons start to jiggle.
2Open the widget gallery. Tap Edit in the top left, then Add Widget. On iOS 17 tap the + in the top left instead.
3Find the app. Type the app's name into the search field at the top of the gallery. Little appears with three sizes: small, medium and wide.
4Choose a size. Wide suits a single milestone mat with its caption. Medium suits a collage of several memories. Drag the one you want onto the screen and tap Add Widget.
5Pick what it shows. Touch and hold the placed widget and tap Edit Widget, then choose the baby profile and whether it shows this month's mat or rotates through favourites.
6Add it to the Lock Screen too. Touch and hold the Lock Screen, tap Customise, tap the area under the clock, and add the same widget there.

Which size to use

The wide widget holds one mat at readable size, caption included. It is the one to use if you make a single photo a month and want that photo in front of you.

The medium square works better as a collage of four, and the small one is best treated as a glance: a photo and an age, no text.

Both Home Screen and Lock Screen can carry the widget, and the Lock Screen one is seen more often, because that is the screen you look at eighty times a day without unlocking anything.

Little's wide Home Screen widget above a medium collage widget and the app icon — The wide widget at the top, a four-photo collage below it. Both update without opening the app.

When the widget does not update

iOS decides when a widget refreshes, not the app. If yesterday's photo is still showing, open the app once. That gives the system a reason to schedule the next refresh, and the widget usually catches up within a few minutes.

If it stays stale, check Settings, General, Background App Refresh. With it off, widgets fall back to refreshing only when you open the app. Low Power Mode does the same thing on purpose.

A widget showing a grey placeholder rather than a photo usually means the memory it pointed at was deleted. Touch and hold it, tap Edit Widget, and pick another.

A widget that is actually your baby

Little builds the mat, the age badge and the caption into one image sized for the widget, so the Home Screen shows this month rather than a random photo. Free on the App Store, iPhone, iOS 17 and later.

Keeping it private

A Lock Screen widget is visible to anyone who picks up the phone, which is the point, but worth a thought before you put your baby's name on it. Little keeps every photo and every caption on the device itself, with no account and no upload, so the only copy of that widget image is the one on your phone.

Questions parents ask

Can I put a baby photo widget on the iPhone Lock Screen?

Yes. Touch and hold the Lock Screen, tap Customise, select the wallpaper, then tap the widget area under the clock and add it there. Lock Screen widgets are smaller, so pick a photo where the baby fills the frame.

Why does my baby widget show an old photo?

iOS batches widget refreshes to save battery. Opening the app once nudges it, and turning Background App Refresh on for the app keeps it current. Low Power Mode delays refreshes until you leave it.