One of the features on our iOS 12 wishlist was Lock screen widgets. Especially, a weather widget. We didn’t ask for a whole system of third-party interactive widgets. A simple Apple Watch style complications system would have been enough. We didn’t see any of that. But Apple did give us a weather widget. Well, sort of.
It’s a bit of a reach, we admit, but if you use the new Do Not Disturb During Bedtime feature, you can wake up to an awesome looking weather widget every morning. Here’s how you can access the feature.
Must read: iOS 12: All the New and Hidden iOS 12 Features
Set the Weather Access to Always
The key to unlocking this feature is giving iOS access to your location. The weather access should be set to “Always”. Your phone needs to know about your round-a-bouts and the location access should be turned ON at all times.
Go to the Settings app, tap on Privacy and then Location Services. Select Weather option and switch to Always.
Set Up Do Not Disturb Schedule
The widget only appears at the end of a Do Not Disturb session. So first we need to enable Do Not Disturb feature and put it on a schedule.
If you don’t already know, Do Not Disturb feature disables notifications and calls and stops your phone from lighting up at night. Only calls from your Favorites can come in (after you’ve specified that). We have in-depth guide about using Do Not Disturb mode here.
Go to Settings -> Do Not Disturb. First turn on Do Not Disturb from the bottom, then select the start time and end time. The end time here is important. Set it to the time you usually wake up or you’re heading out of the door. Once the end time is up, the weather widget will show up.
Next, turn on the Bedtime Mode feature. This is the magic feature will bring us the gift of the weather widget.
Witness the Widget in Action
You can now finally check out the widget in action by waking up your screen after your Do Not Disturb set up time ends, and you are welcomed by the widget with the weather forecast and a Good Morning/Night message depending on the time of the day.
Hopefully, Apple will find a more permanent and convenient solution for the weather widget, but till then we gotta do what we gotta do and that is to keep setting the Do Not Disturb time mode and pace ourselves with the weather changes.
What do you think of the new feature and the improvements to Do Not Disturb mode in iOS 12? Share with us in the comments below.
