For me, the best new iOS 14 feature is the Smart Stack widget. Widgets in general are neat, but I’m hoping the Smart Stack technology will be implemented in other parts of iOS as well.

If you’re not aware, Smart Stack is basically a way for apps to report when they have something interesting to report. In the example below, it had just started raining in Madison, so the weather widget was surfaced.

The obvious extension of this is for Watch complications. Having a temperature complication that switched to a weather conditions complication to warn you about pending inclement weather is a simple example that would make the Watch more useful and easier to use.

Switching to Calendar when you have a meeting coming up, Reminders when you have a task due, or Stocks when the stock market would be very convenient.

A Smart Stack on the lock screen would also be interesting. While you can already put widgets in the dashboard to the left of the lock screen, a single, customizable Smart Stack on the lock screen itself would be able to quickly surface similarly important information about weather, an important meeting, breaking news, and so on.

Fingers crossed for iOS 15. 🤞