iOS 14: How to manage location data access for iPhone and iPad widgets
iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 protect your privacy by permitting you to adjust location permissions for specific widgets, which wasn’t possible before. Follow along with us as we show you how to manually adjust and manage widget location permissions on your iPhone or iPad.
Home screen widgets in iOS 14
iOS 14, iPadOS 14 and macOS Big Sur bring interactive widgets that provide snippets of information every time you get to the Home screen or access the Today view. Some widgets may need access to your location before providing relevant information. For instance, the Weather widget can provide weather forecast for your current location.
Any widgets which need that data request location access in 15-minute increments via a popup. You can also manually manage location data access for any widget that needs it.
How to manage widget location access
Before iOS and iPadOS 14 came along, a widget would simply inherit location permission from its container app. For instance, setting location access for the Weather app to “Always” in iOS 13 and earlier would automatically give the same location permission to its Weather widget.
TUTORIAL: How to create a stack of widgets to save space on the Home screen
In iOS and iPadOS 14, the user can adjust location permissions for a specific widget. As mentioned, widgets request location access in 15-minute increments via a system prompt.
Managing widget location access from the permission prompt
A widget like Weather may requesting access to your location. “Widgets may use your location for up to 15 minutes after being viewed to stay up to date,” reads the permission prompt.
You can adjust a widget’s location access manually, too
To give all the widgets from this app access to your location, tap “Allow”. Conversely, deny access by choosing the option labeled with the text “Don’t Allow”.
Managing widget location access manually
Follow the step-by-step tutorial below to learn how you can manually manage location access for specific in Settings on your iPhone and iPad:
- Open Settings on your iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 14+ or your iPad with iPadOS 14+.
- Choose “Privacy” in the root list.
- Tap “Location Services” at the very top of the list.
- Tap a listed app that has a widget, such as Weather.
- Now choose between the available options to manage widget location access.
The following options are available:
- Never: Neither the widget nor its app have access to your location
- Ask Next Time: Put up a permission prompt the next time you use this app or widget
- While Using the App or Widgets: Location is provided when the app/widget is in use
- While Using the App: Give the app access to your location, but not its widget
- Always: Always allow location access for this app and its widget, without prompts
You can also choose between providing access to your precise or approximate location on a per-app basis, as iDB explained in a separate tutorial.
Sharing only approximate location with widgets
Navigation apps like Google Maps, Waze, Apple Maps and so forth work best when they can pinpoint your exact location with precision. But a weather app, on the other hand, works just fine even if it’s allowed to determine the city where you live or approximate region.
Choosing whether to share your approximate or precise location right from the permission prompt
Bottom line: slide the switch Precise Location to the OFF position in an app’s location settings to only share your approximate location with both this particular app and its widget.
50 major new features in iOS 14
For a quick overview of the 50 headline new iPhone and iPod touch features introduced with iOS 14, be sure to watch our hands-on video walkthrough embedded right ahead.
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Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2020/08/24/manage-widget-location-permissions-tutorial/
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