Use iPhone Widgets on Your Mac Desktop

Since macOS 14 Sonoma, the widget gallery on your Mac includes a section you might not expect: your iPhone's apps. Any widget from any app on your phone can sit on the Mac desktop — no Mac version of the app required, no install. It's one of Continuity's best tricks, and almost nobody has it turned on.

Add one

1. Right-click (Control-click) any empty spot on the desktop and choose Edit Widgets….
2. The widget gallery opens. Apps that exist only on your iPhone appear in the list with a small iPhone badge — or browse the From iPhone grouping to see them together.
3. Click a widget (or drag it) to place it on the desktop; pick the small/medium/large size you want, then click Done.

Widgets sit behind your windows. On Sonoma and later they fade to a monochrome style when apps are active so they don't shout — that's the default Widget Style, adjustable in System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Widgets (Monochrome, Full Color, or Automatic). The same panel has the master switch, Use iPhone widgets, if the section never appears in your gallery.

What makes it work

The Mac renders a snapshot the iPhone supplies, so the requirements are Continuity's usual suspects:

• Both devices signed in to the same Apple Account.
• iPhone running iOS 17 or later; Mac on macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
• The iPhone nearby with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on, or on the same Wi-Fi network — same network is enough; the phone can be charging in another room.

The phone doesn't need to be unlocked, and there's no pairing step: if the requirements are met, iPhone widgets simply show up in the gallery.

What tapping does — and doesn't do

Native Mac widgets can be interactive (tick a reminder, pause music) right on the desktop. iPhone widgets are a remote picture of an app that isn't running on the Mac, so clicking one can't launch the app locally. Instead you get a banner: "Open on iPhone to continue." Data still flows the right way — the widget's content stays current — but treat iPhone widgets as glanceable dashboards, not controls. If an app exists on both platforms, prefer its Mac widget for interactivity.

Stale or blurry widgets

Both symptoms have the same root: the Mac hasn't received a fresh snapshot.

1. Check the iPhone is on the same Wi-Fi network (or physically nearby with Bluetooth on). A phone that left the house explains a widget frozen at 9:14.
2. Unlock the iPhone once and open the app in question — widgets refresh on the app's schedule, and a long-unopened app updates its widget rarely.
3. Toggle Use iPhone widgets off and on in System Settings → Desktop & Dock, then remove and re-add the widget for a clean snapshot at the right resolution — the standard fix for blur.
4. Widgets vanished entirely? Confirm both devices still share the account, and that the iPhone didn't get replaced — widgets bind to a specific phone, and a new phone means re-adding them.

Take it further

Widgets are the passive half of iPhone-on-Mac; the active half is iPhone Mirroring on Sequoia, which puts the whole phone in a window you can click and type into.