How to Add a Bible Verse Widget on iPhone

Key Takeaways

• Install the app first. A widget cannot appear in the widget gallery until its app is on the phone.
• Home screen: touch and hold an empty area, then use the widget gallery to pick the app and the size.
• Lock screen: touch and hold the lock screen, tap Customize, then tap the widget area below the clock.
• Home screen and lock screen widgets are separate features. An app can offer one without the other.
• Medium is the size worth choosing. Small truncates almost every verse longer than a short psalm.

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Before You Start

Two things save time.

Install the app you want the widget from. Widgets live inside apps. Until the app is installed and opened at least once, it will not show up in the widget gallery, and several verse apps need that first launch to load their content before the widget renders anything.

If you have not picked one yet, our iPhone Bible verse widget roundup compares the options. The short version: YouVersion for free and reliable, Heavenly for design, Widgetsmith if you want to type the verse yourself.

Know which iOS version you are on. Open Settings, tap General, then About, and look at Software Version. Apple has reshuffled the home screen editing flow more than once, so the exact button you tap differs between older and newer releases. Both paths are below.

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Add a Bible Verse Widget to the Home Screen

The current flow

1. Touch and hold an empty area of your home screen until the app icons start jiggling.
2. Tap Edit in the upper-left corner, then tap Add Widget. On older releases there is a + button in the corner instead, and it does the same thing.
3. Search for the app by name in the widget gallery. Typing "Bible" surfaces most of them.
4. Tap the app, then swipe between the widget sizes it offers. Most verse apps offer small and medium; some add large.
5. Tap Add Widget to place it.
6. Drag it where you want it, then tap Done.

Choosing the size

Small fits a reference and a fragment. If the verse is longer than about a dozen words, you will read half of it.

Medium is the right default for Scripture. It spans the width of four app icons and fits a full sentence with the reference underneath.

Large is generous but takes a quarter of the screen, which in practice means you push apps onto a second page and start swiping past the widget instead of at it.

Where to place it

The screen you land on by reflex, next to the app you open too often. A verse widget on your third home screen is a widget you have quietly decided not to see. This is the only setup decision that meaningfully affects whether the thing works.

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Add a Bible Verse Widget to the Lock Screen

Lock screen widgets arrived with iOS 16 and are a separate system from home screen widgets. An app that offers one does not automatically offer the other.

1. Wake the phone and touch and hold the lock screen. You may need to unlock with Face ID or your passcode first.
2. Tap Customize, then choose Lock Screen.
3. Tap the widget area directly below the clock.
4. Search for your app and tap its widget to add it. The strip holds up to four small widgets, or two wider ones.
5. Tap Done, then tap the lock screen to set it as active.

Be realistic about the space. Lock screen widgets are small enough that most translations get cut off mid-sentence. If reading the verse is the point rather than seeing a reference, the home screen is the better surface.

Our lock screen Bible verse app guide covers which apps build lock screen widgets specifically, and our lock screen wallpaper guide covers the alternative: put the verse in the wallpaper image itself, where you control the text size and nothing truncates.

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Two Setups Worth Knowing

Widget stacks

You can drop one widget on top of another to create a stack you swipe through. Useful combination: a daily rotating verse from YouVersion or Heavenly, stacked with a Widgetsmith widget holding the passage you are memorizing this month. One slot on the home screen, two purposes.

To build one, add both widgets at the same size, then drag one directly onto the other.

An app whose verse is not a widget at all

Worth flagging because it confuses people comparing apps. FaithLock ships a home screen widget in small and medium sizes, showing your prayer streak and the verse of the day. It does not offer a lock screen widget.

Its main verse moment happens somewhere else entirely: when you try to open an app you have locked, the verse appears before the app does, with a prompt to pray that the listing describes as taking about 30 seconds. So if you install it expecting to find it in the lock screen widget gallery, you will not, and nothing is broken.

Detail	Info
Developer	Appbiz Studio, LLC
Rating	4.2 out of 5 (16 ratings)
Price	Free download; Premium Membership in-app purchases at $6.99 and $39.99
Widget	Home screen only, small and medium
Requires	iOS 13.0 or later

View on the App Store

Disclosure: this article is published on the FaithLock blog.

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When the Widget Does Not Work

The app is not in the widget gallery. Open the app once and try again. If it still does not appear, that app has no widget, or it has no widget for the surface you are on. Several verse apps offer home screen widgets only.

The widget is blank or shows placeholder text. It has not loaded data yet. Open the app, wait a few seconds, then return to the home screen.

It is stuck on yesterday's verse. iOS controls when widgets refresh, and it defers them when the phone is idle or in Low Power Mode. Open the app to force a reload. Then check that Background App Refresh is enabled in Settings under General, and turn off Low Power Mode if it is on.

The verse is cut off. Not fixable through settings. Move up a size, or move from the lock screen to the home screen.

It disappeared after a restart. Rare, and usually resolved by removing the widget with a touch-and-hold, then adding it again fresh.

Force-quitting the app is not a fix and makes staleness worse, since a force-quit app cannot refresh in the background until you launch it again.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why can't I find the Bible app's widget in the gallery? The app has to be installed and, for most verse apps, opened at least once. If it is installed and opened and still missing, check whether you are looking in the lock screen gallery for an app that only builds home screen widgets. The two galleries show different lists.

How do I put a Bible verse on my lock screen without a widget? Use a wallpaper with the verse already in the image. You get full control of the text size and nothing truncates. Our guides to iPhone Bible verse wallpapers and aesthetic Bible verse wallpapers cover where to find them.

Can I have different Bible verse widgets on different lock screens? Yes. iOS supports multiple lock screen and home screen pairs, each with its own widgets, and you can tie them to Focus modes. A verse widget on your morning setup and a plain one for work is a common arrangement.

Do widgets work on iPad? Yes, using the same system, and the extra screen space means medium and large widgets display considerably more of the verse than they do on a phone.

How many widgets can I add? More than you should. Practically, one well-placed verse widget outperforms four, because the fourth one stopped registering within a week.

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Final Thoughts

The setup is a minute of work, and the version differences between iOS releases are the only thing that makes it feel harder than it is. Touch and hold, find the app, pick medium, place it next to the app you overuse.

If the widget stops updating, the answer is almost always to open the app once. And if the real problem is that you check the phone constantly rather than that you lack a verse on it, our guide to stopping phone addiction as a Christian is the more useful page.

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Note on sources: Apple's on-screen labels shift between iOS releases, and Apple's user guide pages could not be retrieved in full at the time of writing, so both the current and older home screen flows are documented above. Check Settings, General, About for your version if the labels on your phone differ. App details come from the Faith Lock App Store listing, checked August 2026, and Apple's iPhone User Guide.