Prayer Times Widget for iPhone: Home Screen, Lock Screen & StandBy Setup

A prayer times widget puts the next salah on your iPhone screen before you've unlocked it — no app to open, no scrolling, no excuse to get lost in notifications on the way. Here's how widgets work on every iOS surface, how to set them up in about a minute, and what to do when one stops updating.

Why a widget beats opening an app

Most of us check prayer times a dozen times a day, and every check is a chance for the phone to hijack the moment — you open the app, a notification catches your eye, and five minutes later you've forgotten why you picked the phone up. A widget removes the trip entirely. You glance, you see "Asr in 42 minutes," and you put the phone down. For something you look at all day long, that difference compounds.

There's a second, quieter benefit: a prayer widget keeps salah visually present in your day. When Maghrib sits next to your calendar and weather, the day starts organizing itself around the prayers instead of the other way round.

The three places widgets live on an iPhone

iOS gives widgets three homes, and each behaves a little differently:

• Home Screen — the classic small, medium and large widgets among your app icons. Best for showing all five times, or the next prayer with a countdown.
• Lock Screen — compact widgets under the clock (introduced in iOS 16). You see these dozens of times a day without unlocking, which makes them ideal for a next-prayer countdown.
• StandBy — since iOS 17, when your iPhone charges on its side, it turns into a small smart display with full-screen widget stacks. On a desk or nightstand, this is effectively a prayer clock.

Hayya requires iOS 17 or later, so all three surfaces are available on any iPhone that runs it.

How to add a prayer widget to your Home Screen

1. Touch and hold any empty area of the Home Screen until the apps jiggle.
2. Tap Edit in the top-left corner, then Add Widget (on older iOS versions, tap the +).
3. Search for your prayer app by name.
4. Swipe through the available sizes, pick one, and tap Add Widget.
5. Drag it where your eyes naturally land, then tap Done.

Tip: you can stack a prayer widget on top of your calendar or weather widget (drag one onto the other) and iOS will surface whichever is most relevant — though for prayer times, most people prefer it always visible.

How to add a prayer widget to your Lock Screen

1. Touch and hold the Lock Screen (Face ID must have unlocked the phone), then tap Customize.
2. Choose Lock Screen.
3. Tap the widget bar beneath the clock.
4. Find your prayer app in the list and tap or drag its widget into place.
5. Tap the ✕, then Done, and confirm.

Lock Screen widgets are small — a next-prayer name and countdown is about all that fits, and honestly that's all you need there. Save the full five-times view for the Home Screen.

Using StandBy as a bedside prayer clock

Place your iPhone on a charger, landscape, on its side, and StandBy appears automatically. Swipe to the widget view, then touch and hold a widget stack to add or remove widgets — the process mirrors the Home Screen picker. With a prayer widget in the stack, your nightstand shows the time to Fajr as you fall asleep, which pairs well with an early alarm. If StandBy doesn't appear, check it's enabled under Settings → StandBy.

What a good prayer times widget should show

Widget space is tight, so the design choices matter. Look for a widget that shows the next prayer with a live countdown — that's the piece of information you actually act on. An all-five-times view is useful on larger widgets for planning the day. And none of it matters if the underlying times are wrong: the app behind the widget should support the standard calculation methods and let you fine-tune to match your mosque. Here's how calculation methods work →

Hayya's widgets — a Pro feature, and why

Honesty first: Hayya's Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets are part of Hayya Pro ($19.99/year or $2.99/month, with a 14-day free trial). Everything you need to actually pray — accurate on-device prayer times with five calculation methods, one-tap logging, the Salah Nur streak, qibla compass, dhikr counter, dua library and more — stays free forever, with zero ads and zero tracking. Widgets, the Weekly Report Card and khushu notes are the polish layer that funds that free core. If you live off your Lock Screen, the trial is enough time to know whether the widget earns its keep.

Prayer times at a glance, everywhere

Free core forever — times, tracking, qibla, dhikr. Pro adds Home & Lock Screen widgets, 14-day free trial.

Download Hayya Free

When your widget stops updating

Prayer widgets have a harder job than most: the countdown has to stay current all day. iOS deliberately limits how often widgets refresh to protect battery life, and a few settings can starve them further. If your widget looks stale:

• Open the app once. A fresh launch lets it recalculate and hand iOS a new timeline of updates.
• Check Low Power Mode. It throttles background refreshes across the board.
• Check Background App Refresh (Settings → General) is on for the app.
• Check location permission. Prayer times depend on where you are; if access was revoked, times can freeze at your last location. Hayya computes times on-device, so granting location doesn't send it anywhere.
• After travel, open the app so the widget picks up the new city. Hayya caches 12 months of times offline, so it keeps working without signal once it knows where you are.

FAQ

Does the iPhone have a built-in prayer times widget?

No. iOS ships no native prayer times feature, so Apple's own widgets can't show salah times. You need a prayer app that provides its own — Hayya's Home and Lock Screen widgets are part of Pro.

Why is my prayer times widget not updating?

iOS limits widget refreshes to save battery. Low Power Mode, disabled Background App Refresh or a revoked location permission make it worse. Open the app once, check those three settings, and the widget should catch up.

Are Hayya's prayer widgets free?

Widgets are a Hayya Pro feature ($19.99/year or $2.99/month) with a 14-day free trial. The core worship features — times, tracking, qibla, Quran log, dhikr — are free forever, with no ads.