Skip to content
Tovari Docs

Home Screen widgets

Maintained by Jason Ewing, founder of Tovari · Published · How we write these docs

What do the Tovari widgets do?

Section titled “What do the Tovari widgets do?”

The widgets put your Safe to Spend figure on your phone’s Home Screen, so you can see how much you can spend without opening the app.

Widgets are a feature of the Tovari mobile app, on iPhone and Android. On iPhone they need iOS 17 or later; on Android, Android 8.0 or later. There are no widgets in the web app, which is why this page has no separate web section.

Adding a widget

Section titled “Adding a widget”

On iPhone:

  1. Touch and hold an empty area of your Home Screen until the apps jiggle.
  2. Tap Edit and then Add Widget, or the add button in the top corner, depending on your iOS version. Search for Tovari.
  3. Choose a size — small, medium or large — and tap Add Widget.

On Android:

  1. Touch and hold an empty area of your Home Screen and tap Widgets. The exact wording depends on your phone.
  2. Find Tovari — the widget is called Safe to Spend — and drag it onto your Home Screen. It starts at the medium size.
  3. To change its size, touch and hold the widget and drag its edges. A narrow widget shows the small layout, a wider one the medium layout, and a wider and taller one the large layout.

Then open Tovari once while you are signed in. The widget connects to your account the next time you open the app, so a widget added before you sign in shows Open Tovari to connect an account until you do.

What each size shows

Section titled “What each size shows”
  • Small — your Safe to Spend figure, its status, how much that is per day until your next payday (or the end of the month), and when it last updated.
  • Medium — everything in the small widget, plus your next three bills.
  • Large — your Safe to Spend figure and what it means per day, the first three budget categories you watch on your Dashboard (shown as Favorites, with what is left in each this month), and your next three bills.

The status uses the same three labels as the app — Healthy, Getting tight and Needs Attention — each with its own icon. When you are short, the widget shows how much you are short by and how many bills that leaves uncovered, instead of a daily amount.

The bills header counts every bill due before your next payday (or the end of the month) and totals them. When more than three are due, it says so — for example 3 of 5 bills — and the total still covers all five.

If you do not watch any categories yet, the large widget says Pick favorites on your Dashboard.

The figures match the app

Section titled “The figures match the app”

The widget shows the same figures Tovari calculates for your Dashboard. It does no arithmetic of its own. Each time you open Tovari, the app and the widget both check for the latest figures, so they agree.

Language

Section titled “Language”

The widget follows your phone’s language (on Android, the language you chose for Tovari in your phone’s settings, if you set one), not the Language setting inside Tovari. If it is Spanish, the widget’s labels, status names, sentences, dates and amounts appear in Spanish — for example Disponible para gastar instead of Safe to Spend, and En buen estado instead of Healthy. Any other language shows the widget in English. Tovari’s built-in category names follow the widget’s language; bill payees and categories you named appear exactly as you entered them.

Keeping it current

Section titled “Keeping it current”

The widget updates:

  • when you open Tovari,
  • a couple of seconds after you change something in the app — entering a bill, editing a transaction, adjusting your budget,
  • and shortly after midnight each day, so the daily amount and the bill list roll over to the new day without you opening the app.

On Android the widget does not yet update on its own when your bank syncs or someone else in your household makes a change; it catches up the next time you open Tovari, or shortly after midnight.

The line at the bottom — for example synced 2 min on iPhone, synced 2 min ago on Android — tells you how long ago the figures last changed. If the widget cannot reach Tovari, it keeps showing the last figures it had rather than going blank, and that line keeps ageing so you can tell they are not current.

Tapping the widget

Section titled “Tapping the widget”
  • Tapping the widget opens your Dashboard.
  • On the large widget, tapping Favorites opens your Budget.
  • Tapping a bill opens Bills.

Privacy and the Lock Screen

Section titled “Privacy and the Lock Screen”

On iPhone, your figures are hidden while your phone is locked. On the Lock Screen and in StandBy, the widget shows placeholders until you unlock your phone; on the Home Screen it shows your figures.

On Android the widget lives only on your Home Screen, so anyone who has your phone unlocked can see your figures there.

If you have turned on Face ID, Touch ID or fingerprint unlock for Tovari, the widget still shows your figures on the Home Screen — that lock protects opening the app, not the widget. Tovari tells you this once, on your Dashboard, the first time both are on.

When the widget says “Open Tovari”

Section titled “When the widget says “Open Tovari””
  • Open Tovari to connect an account — the widget is not connected to your account yet, or you have no accounts included in Safe to Spend. Open the app and connect or include an account.
  • Open Tovari to continue — something needs your attention in the app first, such as confirming your email address, accepting updated terms, or your subscription. The widget shows no figures until it is sorted.

When you sign out, switch to a different account, or reset your password, the widget is disconnected and shows Open Tovari until you sign in again. The same happens if you are removed from a household. Removing every Tovari widget from your Home Screen also disconnects it the next time you open the app.

Section titled “Related pages”