Widget.json and Widget Construction Set
My friend and I just finished this project last week. I'd love to hear your feedback. widget.json brings a dynamic window to the web to your device's home screen. It's kind of like RSS for widgets, you make a widget.json for whatever web data you want and then subscribe to it in Widget Construction Set, our iOS widget.json viewer. We've made image of the day and word of the day widgets, Youtube channel widgets that show the latest videos, RSS widgets, Prometheus counter widgets and more. You can imagine a GitHub CI widget showing the last build status with a link to view it. Friend groups…
In plain words
Widget.json and Widget Construction Set is an iOS app that displays dynamic web content as home screen widgets. Users create a widget.json file for any web data source, then subscribe to it in the app to display live information like images, YouTube videos, RSS feeds, or build status. The system supports local device actions, enabling widgets to trigger messages, calls, emails, and shortcuts. It's designed for developers and groups who want customizable, real-time information widgets on their iOS devices.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
My friend and I just finished this project last week. I'd love to hear your feedback. widget.json brings a dynamic window to the web to your device's home screen. It's kind of like RSS for widgets, you make a widget.json for whatever web data you want and then subscribe to it in Widget Construction Set, our iOS widget.json viewer. We've made image of the day and word of the day widgets, Youtube channel widgets that show the latest videos, RSS widgets, Prometheus counter widgets and more. You can imagine a GitHub CI widget showing the last build status with a link to view it. Friend groups could make a shared scratch pad of text and images. Househoulds can make a shared TODO or grocery list widget. Widgets can use local device launch schemes which enables widgets to initiate text messages, calls, emails, shortcuts apps, and more. With this, you can make a widget that shows images of your favorite people and when you tap their image it FaceTimes them. If you're worried about Twitter, you could even make your own one-way Twitter replacement where your text and images show up on your followers home screen! Ideally, sites add a widget.json feed alongside their RSS feed. widget.json files have a one-click subscribe link to easily add them to Widget Construction Set. This gives sites and creators a simple, direct connection to their users without the need of building a separate app or having their users remember to visit their site. For Patreon or other user-supported creators, they can offer private widgets that are only granted to their supporters. We couldn't figure a way to make a business on this, but we liked what the technology enabled so we're releasing it all for free, with the exception of a one-time $2.99 purchase to view private widgets. Though since the widget.json format is open, if $2.99 is too steep, people are free to make their own private widget viewer as well. Widget Construction Set: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/widget-construction-set/id6444...
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I made a thing! In 2014, I was holding a stack of iPhones and thought to myself: "Hey, if I had each phone display a playing card, I could click a button and they'd shuffle themselves" I pared that idea all the way down to this: trading cards made of e-ink displays. Right now, each card costs me about $20 each, but with only a bit more scale, I think I can get that down to $10. In doing this project, I learned how to design electronics and circuit boards. I learned Rust and wrote my first driver, I upped my CAD skills, 3D printed, and did my first resin casting. I generated the images on the…
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