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You want to read more, but the app sits buried on page three of your home screen and you forget about it for days at a time. A widget fixes that quiet problem. It puts your reading habit somewhere you actually look, so you glance at your phone and see whether you read today instead of remembering three days later that you meant to.
This guide covers the reading widget justRead offers, what it shows, when to use which size, and how to add it. justRead is an EPUB and PDF reader for iPhone and iPad, and its widget is built around one idea: making your reading habit visible without opening the app first.
A quick honesty note before we start. justRead is not a sprawling widget suite with ten variations. It offers the Reading Calendar widget in two sizes, and it does that one job well. This post tells you exactly what it is so you are not hunting for a widget that does not exist.
The Reading Calendar widget
The Reading Calendar widget is the reason most people add a justRead widget in the first place. It shows a heatmap of the days you have been reading. Days with reading activity are filled in; days you skipped are not. The pattern is the point. You can see your consistency at a glance, the same way a fitness app shows you which days you moved.
This is habit accountability you cannot argue with. A streak that is mostly solid with one gap looks different from a calendar that is half empty, and seeing that on your home screen does more for consistency than any reminder notification.
The widget comes in two sizes, and they answer two different questions.
Small size: the month heatmap
The small Reading Calendar widget shows a single month as a compact grid. Each square is a day; filled squares are days you read. It is the size of a standard app icon block, so it tucks neatly next to your other apps.
Use the small size when your question is "did I read today, and how is this month going so far?" It is a daily check-in. You unlock your phone, you see the current month, and you know immediately whether you have kept the run going. If today is still blank by evening, that is your nudge.
This is the size most people want as their primary reading widget. It is small enough to live among your regular apps without taking over the screen, but it carries enough information to keep you honest.
Medium size: the three-month strip
The medium Reading Calendar widget shows a wider three-month strip instead of a single month. You trade the tidy single-block footprint for a longer view of your pattern.
Use the medium size when you care about the longer arc rather than today specifically. Three months is enough to see real trends: the stretch where you read every night, the week you fell off during a busy patch, the recovery afterward. If you are working on building a durable habit rather than just checking a daily box, the three-month strip gives you the context the small widget cannot.
A practical setup that works well: keep the small widget on your main home screen for the daily glance, and put the medium widget on a secondary page or in your Today View where you go specifically to review how things are trending.
What happens when you tap it
Both sizes of the Reading Calendar widget deep-link straight to the Statistics screen inside justRead. Tap the widget and you land on your full reading stats, not just the app's home screen.
That matters because the widget is intentionally a summary, not the whole picture. The heatmap shows you the shape of your habit; the Statistics screen behind it has the detail. That is where your reading streaks live (days with at least a minute of reading), along with your reading sessions, your Reading Recap by day, week, month, and year, and your Reading Speed trend over the last 90 days, which is currently in beta. The widget is the doorway; the stats screen is the room.
You can read more about everything that screen tracks on the reading statistics page.
Shareable book cards (not a widget, but worth knowing)
While we are on the subject of seeing your reading at a glance, there is one related feature that gets mistaken for a widget but is not one.
justRead can generate a shareable book card: a clean visual card built from a book's stats that you can save or share. This lives inside the app, not on your home screen, so it is not something you add through the widget gallery. Think of it as a way to capture a finished book or a reading milestone as an image, rather than a persistent home screen tile.
It is worth knowing about because people often go looking for "a widget that shows the book I just finished" and what they actually want is this. Same idea, different place. You make the card in the app when you want it, rather than having it sit on your screen all the time.
How to add a justRead widget
Adding any of these widgets uses the standard iOS flow, the same one you use for any app:
- Touch and hold an empty area of your home screen until the apps start to jiggle.
- Tap the plus (+) button in the top corner.
- Search for or scroll to justRead in the widget list.
- Swipe between the available sizes to pick the one you want (small month heatmap or medium three-month strip for the Reading Calendar).
- Tap Add Widget, then position it where you want and tap Done.
That is the whole process. If you want it spelled out with more detail and the full picture of what each widget option looks like, the reading widgets hub page has the complete walkthrough.
One thing to set up first: the Reading Calendar widget needs data to display. If you have just installed justRead, the heatmap will be empty until you have logged some reading sessions. Read for a few days and the squares start filling in. The widget reflects what is already in your statistics, so it gets more useful the longer you use the app.
Which size should you use?
If you do not want to think about it, here is the short version.
Pick the small Reading Calendar widget if you want daily accountability. It is the everyday choice. One glance tells you whether you have kept your streak going, and it fits in among your normal apps without dominating the screen.
Pick the medium Reading Calendar widget if you care more about the trend than today. The three-month strip is for reviewing patterns over time, so it suits people who are deliberately trying to build a lasting habit and want to see the longer story.
There is no rule that says you can only pick one. A common setup is the small widget on your main home screen for the daily habit check plus the medium widget in your Today View or on a secondary page for reviewing how the longer arc is trending, which together cover both "am I reading enough today?" and "how is the habit holding up over time?"
If your real goal is building the habit rather than just monitoring it, the widgets pair naturally with goal tracking. The reading goals page covers how justRead handles pace and targets, and the widgets give you the at-a-glance feedback loop that makes goals stick.
FAQ
Does justRead have a home screen widget?
Yes. justRead offers the Reading Calendar widget, available in a small month-heatmap size and a medium three-month-strip size. You add it from your home screen the same way you add any iOS widget.
What does the Reading Calendar widget show?
It shows a heatmap of the days you have read. Days with reading activity are filled in and days you skipped are not, so you can see your consistency at a glance. The small size covers a single month; the medium size shows a three-month strip for a longer view. Tapping either size opens your full Statistics screen.
Is there a reading streak widget?
Not as a separate widget. Your streak (days with at least a minute of reading) lives inside the Statistics screen, which the Reading Calendar widget deep-links to when you tap it. The heatmap itself effectively shows your streak as a run of filled days, and tapping through gives you the exact numbers.
Is there a reading goal progress widget?
No. justRead does not have a dedicated goal-progress widget. Goal pace and targets are handled inside the app on the statistics and goals screens. The Reading Calendar widget shows your day-to-day consistency, which is closely related to staying on pace, but it is not a goal-progress tile.
Can I add the widget to my iPad?
The justRead widgets are iOS widgets, so you add them by touching and holding the home screen, tapping the plus button, and choosing justRead from the widget list. Exact widget placement options can vary by iOS version, so use whatever the plus-button gallery offers on your device.
Why is my Reading Calendar widget empty?
The heatmap reflects your logged reading sessions, so a brand-new install will show an empty calendar until you have actually read in the app. Read for a few days and the days will start filling in. If you have been reading and it still looks blank, open the app to confirm your sessions are recording, then check the widget again.
Does the widget sync my reading to Goodreads or other services?
No. The widgets display data from inside justRead. They do not push your reading activity to Goodreads or any third-party social service. If you want to get highlights out of the app, justRead has a one-button Readwise export and Markdown export, but that is a separate feature from the widgets.
Putting a widget where you will see it
The point of a reading widget is small and specific: make your habit visible so you do not have to rely on remembering it. The Reading Calendar widget keeps your consistency in front of you, and one tap takes you to the full picture in your statistics. If you read on iPhone or iPad and want that gentle accountability on your home screen, justRead gives you exactly that without the clutter.
To go further, see the full reading widgets setup page, dig into everything the reading statistics screen tracks, or read up on how reading goals work in the app.
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