Widgets added on Sonoma saying "open app on iPhone to continue"

I got these black boxes that told me to open the corresponding app on iPhone as well. What worked for me is to turn the iPhone completely off and back on again. You should see the widgets start displaying stuff. If it isn't fully showing, maybe try to trigger something on the app. Like for spotify, the logo popped up for me but the rest was blurry. I opened the Spotify app on iPhone and played a song. Then the full widget on the desktop showed up.

I don't have any answers. All i know is that I shouldn't have to purchase an app to see the batteries of all my Apple Products. The Venmo widget says open on iPhone but doesn't set up. And then there is not an app for Venmo just the website. It is so stupid right now. Maybe they will get it together. I did a feedback.

If these widgets for third party apps do not work, and it's the fault of the third party, like Amazon, Google, Ring, Oura Ring, Withings, etc. why DID Apple accept them to show up in the list of available widgets, in the first place?

They have a very good control on what apps are available on the App Store, they can't do the same here?

I mean, test them before providing them to the end-users?

OK that's good reasoning, you may be right... But, in that case why are they showing up in Sonoma if they are not supposed to be work, if they were written for iOS. Nobody was there from Apple to test them before releasing Sonoma?

They work when they connect back to the app on the iPhone or iPad. There are many iOS widgets that don't need connectivity to the app. Apple doesn't test third-party software. That's up to the developer.

Despite that, I remember that in one of the Sonoma presentations from Youtube, someone was saying that the iPhone, or iPad widgets can work now in Sonoma...

They do work. But if the widget needs input from the parent app, they will only work when you have a Continuity connection back to the app on the iOS device.

What a absolutely pointless tease from Apple... about the ONLY things that work like they should is the Outlook widget and the calendar widget, all the rest are useless (open your iphone to continue), well doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of being able to open a app on your desktop?! For example, the Youtube app, if you click in the search area or the mic on the widget it tells you to open the app on your phone to continue?! Some things Apple does so good and other things really make me wonder...

I am having the same issue with apps that were made for both Iphone and Mac. For example the app "Calendars" by Readdle. They have a mac and an iphone version, but every time I click it, I get the message open app on iphone to continue. But the app is also not working property on my iphone. I'll go to open the calendars app on my iphone, and it will say "open app to see details"

I am having the same issue, butI disagree, Apple is very particular about adding features and making sure that they are specifically designed for that specific device. These widgets have been redesigned for the Mac. For example, the Instagram widget added to the Mac via Sonoma asks to open the Instagram app. I presume this is to link your account to the widget on the Mac. These widgets on Sonoma are not ported onto the mac (even if it is still running the same RISK processes via ARM), Apple will have specifically designed these widgets for the Mac OS. One reason I am let to believe this, is that the widgets that do work perform very well on the different display size of the Mac. If they're ported, they would either have to display at the same resolution as on the iPhone, or be upscaled to run as they are on Sonoma currently. I believe this is more of a bug, or something that will come later, as Apple has stated that a lot of the features that they have advertised on the new iOS and the new OSX will be coming later this year, which is a sad thought as there are a lot of great features that would be very useful to have right now.

If anyone has any information or has found any discussions on delving further into the code aspect of these widgets, please reply to my message as I would be very intrigued to see how they function and why they ask to open the iPhone. I am very much convinced that this is used to authenticate the account used in the given widget (for example, Instagram).

I have also noticed that the Find My widget isn't working, which is a little bit annoying as I have a lot of AirTags and friends who share their location with me, so this would be very useful when glancing at my desktop to see when certain close friends are arriving or ensuring that my AirTags are near me.

I hope this helps spark ideas.

I am also looking forward to the day that we begin seeing more third-party widgets becoming available.

All the best,

Tyler.

I may have just figured out at least part of the problem. I added the widget for the "Be Focused" app on my iPhone to my MacBook desktop. I get the "open app on your phone" message whether the app is open on my phone or not. I dug into the app's settings on my phone and found that only the pro (paid) version includes "sync across devices & focus matrix." So it seems that the widget will not work on my MacBook unless I upgrade the phone app. Pretty sly, app developer, pretty sly.

I hope this helps someone.

My solution was: on iPhone (14 pro) I went to "screen time" / "content & privacy restrictions" and allowed "password changes" and "account changes".

After switched to "allow", half a second later the information was on my MacBook.

that truly makes this debacle even crazier 😂

i've had my desktop items hidden for years now as the concept annoyed me (having loads of files and folders in the background) i just use the desktop folder as a secondary Documents folder as it's sync'd, i don't have it all in background messing up my view of the wallpaper.

in any case, i just wanted to see what all the fuss was about re widgets, which i've always found to be irrelevant, barely useful, and your example of it working at the selection step, and then not working when added, just made me smh.

i found this thread because all the widgets i just added say that i have to open them on my iphone first, which is kind of weird, but then i do and f all happens. wtf is this madness.

there's no wonder they got rid of widgets before... they're just a solution looking for a problem.

I'm turning off my desktop items again (i don't want the contents of a folder splayed all over my wallpaper when i can just accss it as another folder in Finder), and i'm going back to having a uninterrupted wallpaper, as a wallpaper should be (btw, i use Onyx to turn off the desktop madness).

The 'desktop' metaphor is no longer needed in these days when we understand digital devices. lets enjoy our wallpaper and use our folders to put stuff away instead of splaying loads of soon-to-be-irrelevant files across our desktop as if we're teenagers leaving all our crap on the floor. Widgets, smh

btw, i'm back to using Plash again ("a website as desktop wallpaper"), you can find it on the app store, it makes the desktop useful instead of being a wall in the back

(i don't work for him, and it's a free app, and his other apps are v good too). just thought some people here might find it useful, have a good day :)

VPN was never turned on on my iPhone so not sure why it worked for you. No none apple widgets are working on my macbook pro. always says open on iPhone which i do and still nothing happens on the macbook pro...... this isn't making sense why they would even offer this. will keep following conversation to see if there is ever a solution or update that fixes this.

I did another search on this in the apple help..... this paragraph explains it: When you click a widget, if you see the message “Open [app name] on your iPhone to continue,” this means the app isn’t installed on your Mac. You need to open the app on your iPhone to interact with it. Some third-party apps aren’t available for both iPhone and Mac.

only thing is i open it on my iphone and it still doesn't work on the mac..... do i have to also install it on the Mac and if so how do I do that. plus it offeres it in the list of widgets on the Mac so it would seem it is already available..... this is baffling

I opened the app on my iPhone and it still doesn't work. I've started / re-started, turned off widgets, edited widgets, made sure the VPN was off - nothing works.

I concur that this functionality is worthless.

This worked for me as well. I got a new iPhone and they were both showing up under Settings > Desktop & Dock > Widgets > iPhone. So I did what this comment said and also toggled to the other iPhone that was showing up and then my widgets started to load Google Calendar.