Home-Screen Widgets for Your TV Shows, on iPhone and Android

29 October 2026

The quickest tracker is the one you do not have to open. A widget on the home screen can answer the question you open a tracker for most often: what am I watching next?

OpenTV has four home-screen widgets, on iPhone and on Android. This article explains what each one shows, how to add them, and how they stay up to date.

The four widgets

Up Next

Your next episodes, one per show. For every show you follow, Up Next finds the first episode you have not watched that has already aired. Episodes that are announced but not out yet never appear, because the widget answers "what can I watch right now?".

The show you watched most recently comes first, so whatever you are bingeing this week sits at the top.

Each row shows a picture from the episode, its code such as S2E5, the show and the episode title. Tap an episode and OpenTV opens straight on it, ready to mark watched.

On iPhone, the small size shows just your next episode, picture first. The medium size shows a short list.

When you are up to date on everything, it says All caught up.

Movies to Watch

Your film watchlist as a row of posters. Tap a poster to open that film. When the list is empty, it says Watchlist is empty.

Up Next + Movies

Both of the above, side by side: next episodes on one half, the film watchlist on the other. Good if you split your evenings between shows and films.

Watching

Your activity grid: one square for every day, shaded by how much you watched. It is the same grid as the heatmap on your Profile. Today's square is ringed.

On iPhone it comes in three sizes, small, medium and large, and the bigger sizes cover more months. On Android you can resize it. On both, tapping it opens your stats.

How to add a widget on iPhone

1. Touch and hold an empty part of your Home Screen until the apps jiggle.
2. Tap Edit, then Add Widget.
3. Search for OpenTV.
4. Swipe through the four widgets and the sizes each one offers.
5. Tap Add Widget, then place it where you want.

You can add more than one. Up Next and Watching side by side make a neat pair.

How to add a widget on Android

1. Touch and hold an empty part of your home screen.
2. Tap Widgets.
3. Scroll to OpenTV, or search for it.
4. Touch and hold the widget you want, such as Up Next, and drag it into place.

The exact words differ a little between phone makers, but every Android launcher has a widgets list.

How they stay up to date

The widgets do not go online. They show what is already in your library on your phone.

Each time you leave OpenTV, it writes your current Up Next list, watchlist and activity for the widgets to read. That is the moment you are about to see your home screen, so the widget is fresh when you look at it. It also does this once when the app starts.

So the habit is simple: watch an episode, tick it off in OpenTV, go back to your home screen, and Up Next has already moved on to the next one.

On Android, the widgets also refresh on their own every so often while the app is closed.

Your language, your library

On Android, the widgets' headings and messages follow the language you use OpenTV in, one of nine, Arabic included. On iPhone they are in English for now, while the shows and episodes are your own.

Because they read your own library, the widgets work with whatever you brought into OpenTV: a TV Time import, a Trakt history, or shows you added by hand. If a widget asks you to open OpenTV to fill it in, open the app once and leave it, and the widget fills in.

Privacy

Nothing on the widgets comes from a server. On iPhone, the app writes a small file and the posters into a shared space on the phone that only its own widgets can read. On Android, the widget is drawn by the app itself. Either way, what you watch stays on the device.

Is it free?

Yes. All four widgets are free, on iPhone and Android, with no account.

A small tip for a full Up Next

Up Next lists shows you follow. If it shows fewer shows than you expected:

• Check the show is followed. A show you stopped watching leaves Up Next until you resume it.
• Give the app a moment after an import. A show needs its episode list before the widget can point at the next one. That arrives in the background after you import.
• Open and close the app once. That writes a fresh copy for the widget.

Get OpenTV

OpenTV is free, open source and has no ads. Get it on the App Store for iPhone and iPad, or on Google Play for Android. Coming from TV Time? Bring your history across first with the import your TV Time history guide, and your widgets start full. More on how OpenTV works without an account in how to track TV shows offline, with no account.