A Chinese character widget for the hanzi you are learning

Setting it up on an iPhone

The widgets are added through iOS itself. For the Home Screen, press and hold an empty spot until the icons start to move, tap Edit, then Add Widget, search for Hanzijo and swipe to the size you want before adding it. For the Lock Screen, press and hold the Lock Screen, tap Customize, open the widget area under the clock and choose Hanzijo’s rectangle; the one-line style belongs to the date line above the clock.

Back in Hanzijo, Settings and then Widget settings let you choose mixed content or only characters, words or grammar, decide what the Quiz widget asks about and turn on dark mode for the widgets. A new choice shows up at the next refresh, and the app’s Settings also has a short illustrated guide to adding widgets.

Why characters suit a glance

A character is small enough to take in at a glance and rich enough to test you on its shape, its sound and its meaning. When the Lock Screen shows 题, try to say tí before you read the pinyin, and think of a word that uses it, such as 问题, before you read the meaning. Those two seconds turn an idle check of the phone into a small act of recall.

The widget can also help with characters that look alike. Meeting 已 (yǐ, already) and 己 (jǐ, self) on different days, each with its own pinyin and meaning, gives each one its own moment instead of one confusing look at both side by side.

Widget, wallpaper or both

For a fixed set of characters, the free Chinese lock screen wallpaper maker on this site turns characters, pinyin and meanings you choose into an image. An image works on any phone, Android included, but it stays the same until you replace it. The Hanzijo widget runs on iOS 17 and newer and follows your own progress instead. Nothing stops you from using both: a wallpaper with the week’s hardest characters, and the widget for everything else.

Where the widget stops

The widget shows; it does not teach. New characters come from the lessons, where each one has its stroke order, its audio and its memory tip, and the real review happens in the app’s daily session, which spaces every item over seven memory stages. The widget’s job is to keep those items in front of you between sessions.