iPhone widgets and controls
Put your agents and Bots on the Home Screen and Lock Screen, call a Bot in one tap, and start new work from Control Center.
Vato widgets show what your agents and Bots are doing without opening the app. A tap opens the right place in Vato: a conversation, a Bot, a new agent or a call.
Add a widget
- Touch and hold an empty area of the Home Screen until the icons jiggle.
- Tap Edit, then Add Widget.
- Search for Vato and pick a widget and a size.
- Tap Add Widget.
To add a widget to the Lock Screen, touch and hold the Lock Screen, tap Customize, choose the Lock Screen, then tap the widget area.
Available widgets
| Widget | Sizes | What it shows | What a tap does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bot | Small, medium, Lock Screen | One Bot of your choice: its portrait, status and last answer. | Opens the Bot's chat or calls it. The medium size has both Message and Call buttons. |
| Activity | Small, medium, large, Lock Screen | Agents and Bots at work, those waiting for you, and what just finished. | Each row opens its conversation. New agent and New bot start something new. |
| Bots | Medium, large | Your Bots, the busiest first. | A Bot opens its chat. The large size adds a call button per Bot. |
| Latest reply | Medium, large, Lock Screen | The last answer of a finished conversation. | Opens the conversation. The large size adds Message and Call. |
| Quick actions | Medium | Four shortcuts: New agent, New bot, Voice, Activity. | Opens the matching screen. |
| Shortcut | Small, Lock Screen | One action of your choice. | Runs that action. |
A running conversation shows a live timer. A blue dot marks a result you have not read yet. An orange mark means an agent or a Bot needs your answer.
Choose a Bot and the tap action
The Bot widget is configurable:
- Touch and hold the widget, then tap Edit Widget.
- Under Bot, choose the Bot to show.
- Under Tap action, choose Message to open its chat or Call to start a voice call with it.
Without a choice, the widget shows your first pinned or most recently active Bot.
Controls for Control Center and the Lock Screen
On iOS 18 and later, Vato adds three controls:
- Call a bot: starts a voice call with the Bot you choose when you add the control.
- New agent: opens the new conversation sheet.
- New bot: opens the Bot editor.
To add one, open Control Center, touch and hold an empty area, tap Add a Control and search for Vato. On the Lock Screen, choose Customize and replace one of the bottom buttons.
Call a Bot from a widget
Call opens Vato and calls the Bot through the computer that runs it. See Call a Bot for what happens during the call. If the button is missing, no computer with Vato Voice can reach that Bot right now.
Privacy
Widgets only show what the app already shows: titles, short previews and statuses. The data stays on your iPhone, in a keychain item shared only with Vato's own widgets and Apple Watch app. Conversation titles and previews are hidden while your iPhone is locked; Bot names and counts stay visible. Signing out of Vato clears the data, and the widgets then ask you to open Vato to sign in.
Troubleshooting
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| Open Vato to sign in | Open the app and sign in with your Vato account. |
| Edit the widget to choose a bot | The Bot you picked was deleted or hidden. Edit the widget and choose another one. |
| Computer offline | Open Vato on your computer. The widget updates as soon as the app sees it again. |
| Old information | Open Vato once. Widgets refresh when the app receives new activity. |