What you need to know
- Home screen customization apps are seeing record downloads.
- The top twenty apps have already seen more than 5.7 million downloads in four days.
- These apps have also made over $40,000 in revenue.
Reported by TechCrunch, the top 20 home screen customization apps have already surpassed 5.7 million global downloads since iOS 14 launched to the public last week. Like Pinterest's recent record in daily downloads, people are flocking to these apps to help them personalize their home screen with custom widgets, wallpaper, and app icons.
According to the report, Widgetsmith, Color Widgets, and Photo Widget, three of the apps in the top twenty, are currently making up 95% of the downloads. These are some of our picks for the best Home screen customization apps, too.
Remarkably, the three most-downloaded apps — Widgetsmith, Color Widgets, and Photo Widget — account for 95% of these 5.7 million downloads. That indicates that the rest of the app customization market today is much smaller. But this could still change over time if more apps embrace the trend and expand to include innovative and unique features.
If you have been looking for some apps to help you create a unique home screen for your own iPhone, here is how the top 20 customization apps currently break down:
- Widgetsmith
- Color Widgets
- Photo Widget
- Photobox Widget
- MemoWidget
- Home Photo Widget
- Motivation Widget
- Ermine
- Date Today
- Hey Weather
- TimeDeck
- Widgeridoo
- Glimpse 2
- Widget Wizard
- Widget Web
- Locket
- ItemMemo
- OMDZ
- Clock Widget for Home Screen
- Photo Widgets
Not only has this group of apps seen record downloads - but they've also seen a huge business impact as well. According to Sensor Tower, who analyzed the data behind these apps, the top twenty apps have raked in $400,000 in just four days.
Combined, the group has generated a collective $400,000 in consumer spending in four days — from September 17 through September 20. Widgetsmith dominated the group, accounting for $370,000 of that total, followed by an app called Date Today with close to $20,000, per Sensor Tower estimates. (We should note Widgetsmith's figure comes in a bit lower than some of the other estimates that were floating around.)
Some third-party widget apps are gaining traction in the absence of a widget from the app's actual developer. TuneTrack, for instance, is seeing a surge of downloads since there is currently no official widget from Spotify.
Design inspiration resource Pinterest, as noted above, saw record daily downloads. TuneTrack, now the No. 18 free (nongame) app on the U.S. App Store appears to be gathering steam in the absence of an official Spotify widget. Its app offers both Apple Music and Spotify widgets for showing off favorite music on your home screen. Sensor Tower says TuneTrack saw 552,000 installs between Sept. 17 and 20, for example — a figure up 1,840% from the prior week (9/10-9/13). The Motivation widget saw 431,000 installs, up 798%.
Design apps like Procreate Pocket and Icon Changer+, which can be used to create custom icons, are also seeing a boost.
Meanwhile, design tool Procreate Pocket is now the No. 2 paid (nongame) app in the U.S., and PicsArt is the No. 31 free app. An app that simplifies icon changing, Icon Changer+, is No. 40 on the Top Free Apps charts in the U.S., followed by an app called Shortcuts, which is not the same Shortcuts app from Apple. (And surprisingly being allowed to use the same name!)
iOS 14 launched to the public last week and, since then, people have been using apps like these to create some incredibly cool custom home screens.
