Block home screen widgets - iOS 15

[mpetrick]

Is there a way in Jamf Pro to block the widgets that iOS 15 insists on putting on the home screen with a newly setup iPad?  I've got everything else blocked that I want from the home screen of our student iPads but I cannot figure out for the life of me how to block those default widgets with iOS 15.

[mpetrick]

So, one way I've found to do this is by creating a custom home screen layout and listing only the icons and web clips I want to show on Page 1 of the home screen.  That just seems to make the widgets disappear.  I added a second page to the custom home screen layout which caused 2 additional icons I had (Safari and Settings) to move to that 2nd page.  So, this solution seems to work for now.

[RCHolmes]

MPetrick,

In your reply above, You mentioned being able to list web clips you want to show on Page 1 of the Home Screen.

How are you doing that with Web Clips?  I can select Apps that I want to appear on Page 1, but I do not see any option for selecting or directing Web Clips to Page 1.

Before iPadOS 15, if I forced Page 1 to be blank and my apps to appear on Page 2, then Web Clips automatically appeared on Page 1. Now with iPadOS 15, this configuration results in Page 1 being blank and Web Clips appearing on Page 2.

How do you direct a Web Clip to appear on a specific page in the Home Screen Layout Profile?

[mpetrick]

I do it under the Home Screen Layout in the configuration profile as shown below.  When you go and "Add" a new Type to Page 1, you use the dropdown list and change it from Application to Web Clip.

[RCHolmes]

Thank you! I never noticed that when you add an item to a Page there is a drop down field that includes Web Clips as well as Applications. I learned something new today. I appreciate you sharing your experience.

[kcorser]

I would love to see a restriction for this as well. 

[Sandy]

The News Widget is so problematic! The headlines that come up can be so gruesome for young kids. I tried setting a home screen layout and the News Widget still comes up. 

The News app is hidden

[red_beard]

@Sandy I think your implemented fix of setting a home screen layout in combination with setting the restriction to Hidden for Today view on the Lock screen has eliminated the News widget when swiping right from the Home Screen.

[Sandy]

Thanks, @red_beard !

I was missing the Hidden for Today view on the Lock screen.

Sandy

[cjurack]

Is there a way to hide the Headlines widget, WITHOUT having to control the dock?  We want our students to be able to modify the dock but we don't want the Headlines widget showing.

[red_beard]

I believe to achieve what you're after you would just need to set up a configuration profile with two things - First removal of the News app and then also set the Today view on the Lock screen to hidden.

[cjurack]

I just tried that but the Headlines are still there.

[avilla]

We are interested in blocking the headlines widget as well. Top Stories and Best of Apple News is showing up. Article on porn. Yikes! We have news blocked. We can manually "Remove Stack" but that isn't feasible on our scale. Luckily we only have a small set of iPads running iPadOS 15.