X has started rolling out widgets for its iOS app, so you can pin parts of the service to your Home Screen and Lock Screen. You no longer need to open the app every time you want a glance at what is trending or how many alerts you have.
This update includes one Home Screen widget for headlines, plus several Lock Screen options that focus on counts and quick actions. The rollout landed in mid-December 2025 and appears tied to a recent X app update on iPhone and iPad.
Home Screen widget
X currently offers a single Home Screen widget called X News Highlights. It shows a short list of trending headlines from the platform, and you can tap a headline to jump into the related topic inside X.
You can pick from three widget sizes:
- Small
- Medium
- Large
Lock Screen widgets and Grok shortcuts
The Lock Screen options give you more variety, and they focus on simple, glanceable numbers and quick entry points.
Here are the main ones described so far:
- X Notifications: shows your notification count
- X Messages: shows your unread message count in X Chat
- Grok: a widget that jumps you into chat
- Grok Voice: a widget that jumps you into voice conversations
How to add the widgets
You can set these up in the same way you add other iOS widgets.
To add the Home Screen widget
- Press and hold on an empty area of your Home Screen
- Tap the + button
- Search for X
- Choose X News Highlights, then pick a size
- Tap Add Widget and place it where you want
To add Lock Screen widgets
- Press and hold your Lock Screen
- Tap Customize
- Tap the widget area under the clock
- Search for X
- Add Notifications, Messages, or a Grok widget
Why this feels overdue
Apple teased Twitter-style Home Screen widgets during its iOS 14 preview at WWDC 2020, but the feature never shipped at the time. X shipping widgets now closes a long gap between that early tease and what you can actually use today.
X also wants to reclaim its role as the place you check for real-time updates. At the same time, critics have said recent platform changes made feeds noisier, with more spam, low-quality AI content, and misinformation, so a headlines widget will only feel useful if what you see stays trustworthy.
