# 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.

> [!NOTE]
> Widgets need iOS 17 or later. Controls for Control Center and the Lock Screen need iOS 18 or later. Widgets show what the Vato app last saw: open Vato from time to time, or keep your computer online, so they stay current.

## Add a widget

1. Touch and hold an empty area of the Home Screen until the icons jiggle.
2. Tap **Edit**, then **Add Widget**.
3. Search for **Vato** and pick a widget and a size.
4. 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:

1. Touch and hold the widget, then tap **Edit Widget**.
2. Under **Bot**, choose the Bot to show.
3. 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](bots-on-mobile.md#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. |

Source: https://vatoide.com/docs/mobile/widgets