To keep a virtual pet on your iPhone Home Screen, install a pet app that offers widgets, then touch and hold an empty spot on the Home Screen, tap Edit, choose Add Widget, search for the app and pick a size. From then on the pet sits next to your apps, and on iOS 17 or later you can feed it or play with it by tapping buttons on the widget, without opening anything.
Why put a pet on the Home Screen at all?
A pet is something you glance at, not something you schedule. Hidden inside an app, it only exists when you remember to open that app, and most people stop remembering within a week. Put on the Home Screen, it is there each of the dozens of times a day you unlock your phone: asleep, bored, or waiting by an empty bowl.
That glance is the whole point. You notice it is hungry the way you notice a real cat circling the kitchen, and looking after it fits into moments you already have.
How do you add a pet widget?
- Install the app and open it once, so it can set up the pet and prepare what the widget shows.
- Touch and hold an empty spot on the Home Screen until the icons start to jiggle.
- Tap Edit, then Add Widget, and search for the app by name.
- Swipe through the sizes, pick one and tap Add Widget. Drag it where you want it and tap Done.
If the widget says it is waiting for the app, open the app once more: widgets can only show what the app has already saved.
Which size should you choose?
Choose by what you want to see without tapping:
- Small fits a single pet. Good for one companion you check on often, and the size that StandBy shows while the phone charges on its side.
- Medium has room for two pets, their moods and a row of care buttons.
- Large shows the whole scene, such as a decorated room or island, with everyone's needs at once.
You can stack several sizes in one Smart Stack and swipe between them, so you don't have to give up a whole page of apps.
Can the pet live on the Lock Screen too?
Yes. Touch and hold the Lock Screen, tap Customize, then Lock Screen, and tap the widget area under the clock to add the app's widget. Lock Screen widgets are small and monochrome, so they suit a one-line status: a name and a mood, or a tiny portrait. They are the first thing you see when you pick up the phone, before you even unlock it.
How do you keep it from turning into a chore?
Let the pet ask for attention only when it actually needs something, and only a couple of times a day. Reminders that fire every hour train you to swipe them away, and then the pet is just noise. A good pet app ties its notifications to real needs, such as an empty belly or a muddy coat, and lets you turn them off without losing anything.
Short daily rituals help more than long sessions: a check-in, a meal, a quick game. Two minutes a day keeps a pet content far better than an hour once a week.
How does PawIsle help?
PawIsle is a small floating island where cats and dogs live, and the island is built for the Home Screen first. The small widget shows one pet on its own little island with feed and pet buttons, the medium widget shows two pets with their moods, and the large widget shows the island you've decorated with everyone's needs. A daily widget checks you in and claims free food, and a Lock Screen widget carries a pet's mood.
Needs follow real time: a pet gets hungry about twice a day, wants a bath about once a day and naps when it runs low on energy. Reminders are optional and capped at two a day, sent only when a pet is hungry, grubby or bored. Every cat and dog is born from its own DNA, and adopting is free.