How To Add Gmail Widget On iPhone Home Screen (iOS 14)

Gmail widget on iPhone Home Screen

Gmail widget on iPhone Home Screen


Google has finally updated Gmail with support for the iOS 14 Home Screen widgets feature. Version 6.0.201101 or later allows users to add the Gmail widget on iPhone home layout. All that you have to do is to update the app and add the glance from the ‘Add Widget’ menu.

The new Gmail widget comes with a glanceable info that allows you how many unread mail messages are available in your Inbox, along with three quick actions: Search in mail, Compose and Inbox. Because of current iOS 14 limitations, you’re not able to interact with the widget. The only option is to tap one of the available sections and you’ll be redirected to that specific part of Gmail.

How To Add Gmail Widget On Home Screen

Before we start please make sure that you’re running the latest version of Gmail for iOS. Use this direct App Store link to update if necessary. If an update was required, make sure that you run the Gmail app at least once before proceeding, this will enable the Gmail widget for iOS 14.
how to add gmail widget to home screen

  • Long-press on an empty spot on the Home Screen until app icons or widgets start to jiggle and you entered the Edit mode.
  • Tap on the ‘+’ icon, available in the top-left corner of the screen.
  • Scroll or search for Gmail in the Add Widgets panel.
  • At the time of writing, a single widget type and size is available. It’s called Quick email actions. Tap on Add Widget.
  • Drag & drop the widget to the desired Home Screen location and hit Done.
  • Fact: You can now search, compose and receive email updates faster directly on your iPhone’s Home Screen.

How To Edit Gmail Account

how to edit account for Gmail widget
Because of current limitations, the Gmail widget can only provide info about a single mail account. Unlike the Gmail app itself that you can set to show All Inboxes, the glance assigns by default your primary Gmail account to the widget.
You can edit the account that you want to use with the Gmail widget by long-pressing on the glance. Select Edit Widget. Tap on Account and pick one available in the list.
Tip: The list displays all accounts that you’ve added to the Gmail app on iPhone. To populate it open the app, tap on your account’s icon, in the top-right corner and use the Add another account option. You can also use the ‘Manage accounts on this device’ option to enable or disable which accounts you want to use.

Trick: If you need to use multiple accounts you can add multiple Gmail widgets and select different accounts for each.

How To Fix Gmail Widget Not Updating

One of the issues that we’ve spotted is that the new Gmail widget isn’t always displaying the correct value for Unread mails. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. Set The Correct Gmail Account

Make sure that you’re using the correct Gmail account. You can glance this by checking the account’s icon displayed at the end of the Search in mail field.

2. Multiple Accounts

If the badge on the Gmail icon shows a different, higher number, than the Unread field, this isn’t necessarily wrong. That’s because the Gmail badge shows the total number of unread mails across all the Gmail accounts configured in the app, while the widget shows the Unread number for a single account.

3. iOS 14 Limitations

Unfortunately, the Gmail widget isn’t able to automatically update when new messages are received. We’ve noticed that the Unread value is updated whenever you open the Gmail app. This isn’t user-intuitive, but that’s how widgets currently work in iOS 14.

Are you using the Gmail widget on iPhone Home Screen? Share your feedback using the comments section. Don’t hesitate to ask for help.

Related: You might also be interested in adding the Goolge Search widget on your Home Screen. For even more widgets you can check out this top 10 collection, as wells as over 100 more widgets for iOS 14!