Ingenious iPhone widgets monitor space, memory, data usage

Space, memory and data usage are key system functions that you must monitor on your iPhone and iPad. The question is, what is the best way to do it? These great Today widgets do the job.

If you run short of space, storage space that is, you will not be able to install apps, add music, shoot photos and videos, and so on. It cripples the iPhone and iPad, and so it is important to keep an eye on the amount that is remaining. Then when it is low, you can do something about it, such as transferring photos or videos to your computer or online storage and then deleting them off the iOS device.

The amount of memory free is not normally an issue, but in extreme situations where you are running a lot of memory-intensive applications at the same time, it can become in short supply. The result is a slow iPhone or iPad as iOS swaps apps in and out of memory.

Usage Widget

Price: Free | By: Robert Ghizzi | Size: 4.5 Mb | iOS: 8.2 or later

Usage Widget is an old app that has not been updated for several years, but it runs on the iPhone 11 with iOS 13, so it is still worth considering. Run the app and it shows a simple screen that displays the free space (RAM that is) and breaks down memory usage into Free, Inactive, Active and Wired. It provides access to the Settings and that is about it.

However, it is designed to be a Today screen widget, so pull down from the top of the screen, swipe to the Today tab if it is not already displayed, and tap Edit at the bottom. Scroll down to Usage Widget and add it. It shows a live display of the key attributes you need to follow on the iPhone Today screen.

It shows the free memory as a percentage and a breakdown of the memory usage as coloured bars. Don’t worry if the memory usage shows little free (the green bit at the start), this is normal and it is usually followed by a blue bar, which is inactive memory. The green and blue bars show free memory and the orange and red bars show used memory. As long as there is some green and blue, your iOS device is OK.

The free space is the iPhone's storage and green is free space while used space is red. When the green bar shrinks to nothing, you’re in trouble. Delete some photos, videos, music or apps to free up space.

Underneath it shows the internet connection, such as the Wi-Fi speed, upload and download in kbps, and there is a live scrolling chart showing the peaks and troughs of CPU usage. The scrolling CPU chart flickers a bit, which is a minor compatibility issue, but otherwise the widget works well considering its age.

Some features are only available with the pro version of the app and it is so cheap it is a no-brainer. Pay $0.99 and it unlocks several features, such as the all-important data usage monitoring. You can see the data used, your allowance, and the renewal date. These can be easily configured in the settings and are included on the Today screen in the widget. You can also display your IP address and battery status, with the talk time, standby time, Wi-Fi time and so on.

The only issue I have with Usage Widget is the text size. It gets smaller and smaller with each line of information. When you get down to the battery info it is so small some people might have difficulty reading it. The text size needs to be increased.

I like Usage Widget and as a free widget it is fine. The upgrade cost to unlock the extra features is so low your may as well go Pro. This is recommended for the iPhone and iPad.

System Usage Monitor & Widget

Price: Free | By: Oleh Stasula | Size: 3.1 MB | iOS: 13

Run System Usage Monitor & Widget and a series of cards are displayed on the screen showing live system information. The first card shows CPU usage. If you are quick, you can switch to the app and see the current usage. However, it quickly falls to a low idle speed.

The next screen shows the memory usage as a bar chart with Active, Inactive, Free, and Wired components. Tapping the screen switches between percentage values and megabytes. The third screen shows the storage as with the total, free and used amounts in numbers and as an easy-to-read pie chart. The last card shows network usages and it has the total figure, mobile data usage and Wi-Fi.

Although you can open the app, all the information you need is available as a Today screen widget. It is densely packed and a lot of information is crammed into quite a small space. There is a live CPU usage scrolling chart and a breakdown of memory usage. The total WiFi and mobile data is displayed and there is a breakdown of the amount sent and received for each one. The widget has an expanded and compact display, so you can hide or show some of the information.

The app has been updated for iOS 13 and it supports light and dark modes. It is free with no adverts.

Conclusion

Here are two very different apps for monitoring the system resources on the iPhone. One is old and the other is new, but both do the job well. If you like keeping an eye on geeky stats on your iPhone, these widgets for showing system activity and usage are exc excellent.