Add Contact to Home Screen on iPhone

However, children and the elderly will find speed dial in the form of contact shortcuts on iPhone home screen when they need to call someone quickly in an emergency. We will begin with Apple’s own solution first.

1. Use Shortcuts App

You can do a lot of interesting things with Siri Shortcuts such as creating custom icons, and play YouTube videos in PIP. Apart from these complicated sets of actions, you can also create simple shortcuts to call your loved ones from iPhone’s Home Screen.

  1. Start by opening the Shortcuts app and tap the + button on the top right corner to create a new shortcut. Tap Add Action button to bring up the list of actions.
  2. Search Call or FaceTime. You can choose either of those. However, you would only be able to make a FaceTime call if you and they both have an internet connection. Whereas a regular call would go through regardless.
  3. Now, tap the Contact button on the Phone action tile.
  4. Choose the contact of your choice. Tap the Options button on the top right corner.
  5. Tap Add to Home Screen. On this page, we’re going to give our Home Screen icon a name and an icon. You can choose any photo from the Photos or the Files app. Give it a name and tap Add button on the top right corner.
  6. Your contact has been added as an app icon on the Home Screen. Save the shortcut by giving it a name and tap Done on the top right corner.
  7. You would find your contact on the Home Screen. Simply tap the icon to run a call.

2. Use Widget App to Add a Contact to Home Screen

Widgets have transformed the way users use their iPhone’s home screen. Ranging from purely cosmetic to feature-rich, there are widgets for every use case. You can install Widget Contacts to place one or more contacts on Home Screen of iPhone and call them with a single tap. The app is free to use and lets you put two different contacts on the home screen. After that, you need to upgrade to the Pro version for $1.99.

  1. Start by installing the Widget Contacts app on iPhone from the App Store. Open the app and you’d find three styles of widgets that you can put on the home screen: small, medium, and large. The small widget puts one contact on the home screen, the medium widget puts four contacts on the home screen, and the large widget puts 9-12 contacts.
  2. For demonstration, I chose to use the small widget. Tap Add a Favorite button to add a contact to the list.
  3. Choose the contact you wish to place on iPhone home screen. You can customize how your widget shall look and change the display picture, contact name, and text color.
  4. After making adjustments, hit the Save button on the top right corner.
  5. Close the app on the home screen, press and hold anywhere to enter jiggle mode. Tap the + button on the top left corner to add a widget. Scroll down to find Widget Contacts and tap that.
  6. Select the 1 Favorite widget and tap Add Widget. You would see a widget but not the contact.
  7. Now, press and hold to open the widget options. Tap Edit Widget and you can now add the contact we added earlier to the app. Here, you can select contact, its style, and action. Unlike Shortcuts, you can choose between call, FaceTime, WhatsApp, and Skype. There you go. This widget would act as the Speed Dial and whenever you tap the widget, it would directly give you the option to call the person. Widget Contacts is a well-designed app to add a contact on the home screen of iPhone. Unlike Shortcuts, the icon is 4 times larger and easy to locate. There are other apps that offer similar features like Launcher, and Favorites Widget Pro.

3. Add People to your Emergency Contacts

Although it isn’t the same as putting contacts on the home screen, it can still come in handy when you get in an emergency and want to contact someone. Emergency SOS doesn’t actually call your assigned contact, it sends your current location via SMS and contacts the Emergency helpline number instead. If you haven’t already set up the emergency contact, do it now.

  1. Open the Contacts app, scroll down to the contact you wish to add as an Emergency contact. On the contact details page, tap Add to Emergency Contacts. Tap Done on the top right corner and that’s it. You can remove the emergency contact at any time.

How Do You Add Contact to Home Screen on iPhone

These were some workarounds for creating speed dials of chosen contacts. The Shortcuts method works like a charm and lets you call or FaceTime with a tap. Widget Contacts takes it even further and offers WhatsApp and Skype calls as well. What do you think? How do you add contacts to Home Screen? Let me know on Twitter. Also Read: 15 Best iOS 14 Icon Packs (Free and Paid) to Customize Home Screen