A quote widget for iPhone that shows your own quotes
How iPhone widgets work, how to add the Kandou widget in any size, how to make it change daily or at custom times, and how Pro styles the medium and large widgets with your photo and font.
The short answer. Kandou puts a quote widget on your iPhone Home Screen that shows your quotes, not a feed. Add the small widget for free, set a rotation (daily, every other day, weekly, or up to four custom times a day), and it changes on that schedule. Kandou Pro unlocks the medium and large widgets (plus an extra-large one on iOS 27), which show the author and category and can be styled with your own photo, font, size, and text color. Kandou requires iOS 18 or later, and it has no Lock Screen widget; for the Lock Screen, use the wallpaper export.
Most quote widgets show someone else’s quotes
Search the App Store for a quote widget and you get feeds: a new generic motivational line every hour, from a database of thousands, usually with a subscription attached. That is fine if you want a stream of strangers’ words. It is the wrong tool if the point of a quote is that it is yours: the line from the book that changed something, the thing a friend said, the sentence you wrote.
A widget is the best surface on an iPhone for a saved quote, because you look at the Home Screen dozens of times a day without deciding to. The trick is to fill it with a collection you chose and to change it slowly enough that each line has time to land.
How Kandou’s widgets work
Kandou has a Home Screen widget in every size:
- Small (free): the quote text only, on a background in the quote’s category color. Clean and readable at a glance.
- Medium (Pro): the quote with its author and a category badge, in the app’s serif typography.
- Large (Pro): one quote with room to breathe, in large serif type above the category and the author. A long passage shrinks to fit instead of being cut off.
- Extra Large (Pro, iOS 27): a tall portrait widget that fills most of a Home Screen page and turns a single quote into a poster.
Pro also unlocks the Widget Appearance editor, where you set a photo background, choose how the text sits on it (Band, a soft dark strip behind the words, or Subtitle, white text with a thin outline so the whole picture stays in view), and pick the font, size, and text color. On Kandou Free, the medium and large sizes show an Upgrade to Pro message instead of a quote.
Every size follows the widget rotation you set in Settings, which is separate from the Home tab rotation, so the widget can change daily while the app shows a different pace. Widgets are updated by iOS on its own schedule, so a change can land a few minutes after the time you chose.
Adding the widget
In Kandou
- Save at least one quote (or keep the free Starter collection, which is already there). The widget needs content to show.
- Set the widget rotation: open Settings, choose Widget, and pick Standard (Daily, Every Other Day, or Weekly at a chosen time) or Personalized (up to four times a day). Off shows the same quote until you change it.
- Add the widget: press and hold an empty area of the Home Screen until the apps jiggle, tap Edit in the top-left corner, then Add Widget, and search for Kandou. Swipe to the size you want (small is free; medium, large, and on iOS 27 extra large come with Pro), tap Add Widget, then Done.
- Style the Pro widgets: open Settings, set Display to Widget, and under Appearance tap Photo & Text. Choose a photo, set the text position and the text style (Band or Subtitle), then pick the font, size, and color. Switch the preview between Medium, Large, and Extra Large to check each size, and tap Save. The widget updates with the next refresh.
- Tap the widget to open the app on that quote.
Making the widget worth looking at
- One line a day is the right speed. Hourly widgets become wallpaper you stop seeing. Daily, at a time you actually look at your phone (morning coffee, the commute), gives each line a chance.
- Keep the widget on the first Home Screen page. Widgets on page three are widgets you never see.
- Filter by mood with categories. Tap a category in the Home tab’s grid (Stoic Wisdom, Love, or one of your own) and the widget follows the same filter, so both show only that category until you tap it again to clear it.
- Match the size to the quote. A short line reads well in the small or medium widget; a longer passage deserves the large one, where it keeps its full text.
- Use a photo background sparingly (Pro). A calm photo behind a serif line looks like a print; a busy one makes the quote unreadable. Subtitle text keeps more of the photo visible than the Band, and the editor shows a live preview of every size.
Lock Screen: what Kandou does instead of a widget
iOS Lock Screen widgets are small rectangles, about half the width of the screen, which is too little room for a sentence. Kandou deliberately does not ship one. Instead, any quote can be exported as a full-screen wallpaper, saved to Photos, and set as the Lock Screen, for free. The Lock Screen guide walks through it.
Frequently asked questions
Does Kandou have a Home Screen widget?
Yes. A small widget is free and shows your current quote. Kandou Pro adds the medium and large widgets (and an extra-large one on iOS 27) with the author and category, along with a Widget Appearance editor for a photo background, the Band or Subtitle text style, font, size, and text color.
Does Kandou have a large quote widget?
Yes. Since version 1.4, Kandou Pro includes a large widget that gives one quote the space of four app rows, and on iOS 27 an extra-large portrait widget. Add it like any widget: Edit, then Add Widget, search for Kandou, and swipe to the Large or Extra Large size.
Can the widget show my own quotes instead of random ones?
Yes. The widget shows the quotes in your Kandou collection, your own and any library collections you added, on the rotation you set. There is no feed of generic quotes.
How often does the quote widget change?
As often as you choose in Settings: daily, every other day, weekly, or at up to four custom times a day. iOS refreshes widgets on its own schedule, so a change may appear a few minutes after the set time.
Why is my Kandou widget not updating?
Open the app once (that triggers a refresh), make sure you have at least one saved quote, check that the widget rotation is not set to Off, and if needed remove and re-add the widget. iOS controls the exact refresh timing.
Does Kandou have a Lock Screen widget?
No. Lock Screen widgets are too small for a quote, so Kandou exports quotes as full-screen wallpapers instead, which you set as your Lock Screen from Photos.