Earlier today, an anonymous source who has shared accurate information in the past revealed that iOS 17 will offer potential new features for the iPhone, including improvements to Search, Lingering Island, Control Center and more. In addition, the source said that Apple is internally testing interactive widgets for the Home screen and Today view, but they are not sure if this feature will be the final version.
The source said on Twitter, “Active widgets are being tested and if made available to the public, the interactive widgets will include a range of buttons, sliders and other dynamic content.”
As noted in Apple’s developer documentation, the home screen widgets introduced starting with iOS 14 currently offer very limited functionality. The gadgets present read-only information and do not support interactive elements such as scrolling elements or switches. These limitations may be related to battery life considerations.
Last year, the same source leaked accurate details of the Lingering Island on the iPhone 14 Pro ahead of the device’s release. However, given that the source has yet to establish a long track record with Apple rumors, it remains to be seen if all the latest details they share this time prove to be accurate.
Apple is expected to announce iOS 17 during its WWDC 2023 keynote on June 5, and as usual, the first beta should be available to developers for testing later that day. The first public beta will likely be released in July.
