Track your period from the home screen

Most period trackers fail for a boring reason: you stop opening them. Logging feels like a chore, days go unrecorded, predictions drift, and eventually the app is just an icon. The fix is not more willpower — it is moving the tracker to where your eyes already are: the home screen.

What a widget changes

A widget turns tracking from a task into a glance. Instead of open app → wait → find the screen, the answer is already there when you unlock your phone: what cycle day you are on, how many days until your period, and how today is likely to feel. And if the widget can log — one tap to record how you feel — the daily habit that keeps predictions accurate stops requiring the app at all.

How to add a widget on Android

1. Long-press an empty spot on the home screen.
2. Tap Widgets.
3. Find your period app in the list (for CycleCast: a 2×2 weather widget and a 4×2 quick-log widget).
4. Long-press the widget and drag it where you want it. On most launchers you can resize it by long-pressing again.

What a good period widget shows

• The countdown — days until your next period is the number people check most.
• Today's phase — knowing you are in PMS territory explains the day before it starts.
• One-tap logging — the single habit that keeps forecasts accurate.
• Nothing embarrassing — a widget sits on your home screen where anyone might see it.

The discretion question

That last point matters more than app makers admit. A widget that says "PERIOD IN 3 DAYS" in red letters is a widget you will not use. CycleCast's widgets show a small cloud character, a weather word and a soft countdown — to anyone glancing at your phone it reads as a cute weather widget. You know what "stormy" means; nobody else needs to.

Widgets that stay correct

One caveat: a widget is only useful if it updates. CycleCast recomputes its widgets whenever you log or a new day starts, entirely on-device — the widget works with no network, and your data never leaves the phone.