Any Text
Put text on your Lock Screen, Home Screen, and desktop
Write a goal, a note, or a short list, and see it every time you look at your Lock Screen, Home Screen, Apple Watch, or desktop.
$4, one-time purchase for all platformsAvailable on macOS, iOS, watchOS, and visionOSRequires version 26 or laterSince 2022No data collected
Scan with your iPhone to open Any Text on the App Store
Any Text is a great example of an app that uses Shortcuts to its advantage to make what would otherwise be a static widget that you’d have to change manually or with Focus modes into one that is far more dynamic.
Although there are a few widget apps here and there that let you put your own text on the iPhone Lock Screen, none of them implement it as clearly, nicely, and well structured as the completely free AnyText.
The text is shown in widgets that you add where you want them.
For macOS, it’s only available for Apple silicon Macs running macOS 26 or later.
On iOS, you can also show the text in a Live Activity.
Syncs across your devices with iCloud.
TIP
You may also like my One Thing app for macOS.
Recent Reviews, all with five stars
Rated 4.6 out of 5 from 605 ratings on the App Store
Love it
if you want super simple notetaking that has large widgets this works great.
Just works
Does what it says and has lots of customization options for fonts and display styles. Looks great on lock screen too.
Awesome app
A great app, would love to see the circular watch complications supported, even just an emoji would be useful
Very useful and simple to use
I really appreciate how easy the UI is to update the widget text, especially on the Apple Watch app. It only takes a few taps and the interface is designed in a way that actually makes sense. You can tell the developer knows how to work around a lot of the bugs that plague other apps, usually because of Apple’s bad coding.
Tips
Markdown
You can style parts of the text bold, italic, or strikethrough using Markdown.
For example:
- Bold text is created by wrapping text with double asterisks:
**bold** - Italic text is created by wrapping text with single asterisks:
*italic* Strikethrough textis created by wrapping text with double tildes:~~strikethrough~~
With a keyboard on iPad or Mac, press CommandB to make the selected text bold, CommandI to make it italic, and ShiftCommandX to strike it through.
Troubleshoot syncing
- After enabling sync, try writing some more text on all the devices.
- More iCloud sync troubleshooting…
Frequently Asked Questions
I have a feature request, bug report, or some feedback
Click the feedback button in the app or send it here.
The widget does not show up in the widget picker, is stuck, or is missing
The iOS widget system is quite buggy and can fail a lot. This is not a problem with the app and is out of my control. See how to fix a widget that does not show up.
The Lock Screen widget sometimes disappears
Make sure Lock Screen widgets are allowed when locked: “Settings › Face ID & Passcode › Allow Access When Locked › Lock Screen Widgets”. If it’s “off”, iOS may hide the widget until you unlock.
The widget is blank
If the text is missing only while the device is locked, enable “Force Show When Device Is Locked” in the “Advanced” section of the widget settings in the app. After a restart, the text shows only after you unlock the device once. This is a limit of iOS for all widgets.
If not, try this:
- Restart your device.
- Change the language of the device to something else and then back.
- Ensure Lock Screen widgets are allowed to show content while the device is locked at “Settings › Face ID & Passcode (or Touch ID & Passcode) › Allow Access When Locked › Lock Screen Widgets”.
Can you support having multiple pieces of text that change during the day?
I would like to keep the app simple, so it’s not something I plan to support built-in. However, the app comes with a shortcut action to change the text, so you could use the Shortcuts automations to change the text during the day.
You could also put multiple widgets in a widget stack.
Can you add support for user-installed fonts?
This is unfortunately not possible as widgets cannot access user-installed fonts.
The widget does not update when setting the text with the Shortcuts action
This is unfortunately an iOS bug. The app correctly tells iOS to update the widget, but iOS delays it for some reason. The text will update eventually.
If you work at Apple → FB11522170
Can you make the widget bigger?
The widget sizes are controlled by Apple. The provided size is the largest it allows. On iPad and Mac, there is also an extra large size.
Can you remove the title shown below the widget?
Apple does not allow removing the title. Some apps managed to do it early on, but these days, Apple rejects any attempt at doing that. However, you can hide the titles of all apps and widgets on the Home Screen: touch and hold the Home Screen, tap “Edit” › “Customize”, and choose “Large”.
How can I remove the date prefix from the inline Lock Screen widget above the clock?
iOS forces the date to be shown. This is out of my control.
The inline Lock Screen widget above the clock does not respect my font choice
iOS forces the text to be the same style as the prefixed date. This is out of my control.
Can it open a specific app instead when tapping the widget?
Create a shortcut in the Shortcuts app that opens the app you want, then open “Any Text”, go to one of the widgets, open settings, and set the tap action to the shortcut you just made.
Can I prevent my child from editing the text when tapping the widget?
You can set the “When Tapped” setting to “None” in the widget settings.
Can I edit the text directly from the Home Screen or Lock Screen?
No, widgets only support tapping interactions.
Can I make the widget horizontally centered on the Lock Screen?
This is unfortunately not possible. Apple has decided that the rectangular widget can only appear on the left or right side.
Can I pick a color for the text on the Lock Screen?
Lock Screen widgets cannot have colors. You can set a custom text color for the normal widgets though.
The widget does not update if I write some text in the app and then reveal the Lock Screen
You need to first close the app. This is an iOS bug.
If you work at Apple → FB11522275
The widget does not update even if I do the above
The app tells iOS to update the widget. Unfortunately, iOS can decide to delay an update for various reasons (low battery, Low Power Mode, etc.). This is completely out of my control.
The Lock Screen widget does not show the text after restarting the device, before unlocking it
This is an iOS limitation and is out of my control. It shows a placeholder until the first unlock. This is how all Lock Screen widgets work.
When using the “Run Shortcut” action, why does tapping the widget first open the main app and then the Shortcuts app?
This is because of iOS limitations. A widget can only open its own app when a user taps it. And the only way to run a shortcut is to open the Shortcuts app using a special URL. So when you tap the widget, the widget opens the main app, and the main app then opens the Shortcuts app. It’s not a very good user experience, but only Apple can fix this.
If you work at Apple, you know what to do:
Scripting
The text in the widgets can be changed using the Shortcuts app.
Shortcuts app
Command-line on macOS
Shortcuts can be executed via the command-line, allowing you to set widget text programmatically.
For example, to set the text for widget 1, add the “Set Widget 1 Text” shortcut, and then run this:
echo 'TEST' | shortcuts run 'Set Widget 1 Text'
Get Any Text
Put text on your Lock Screen, Home Screen, and desktop
$4, one-time purchase for all platforms
- Platforms
- macOS, iOS, watchOS, visionOS
- Requires
- macOS 26 or later, iOS 26 or later, watchOS 26 or later, visionOS 26 or later
- Category
- Utilities
- Released
- September 2022
- Privacy
- No data collected
- Developer
- Sindre Sorhus