iOS Widget not available in Widget Search on iOS 16

We are running into a major issue with building an iOS Widget. iOS Widgets are basically large informational app icons you can pin to your iPhone home screen (What is a widget?). iOS widgets were introduced in iOS 14.

We’ve finished building our iOS widget. However, when half of our users attempt to search for our widget after downloading our app, our widget is not showing up in the widget search results. For the other half, it works fine. This seems to be somewhat of a bug from Apple, as it is affects other widget apps (Apple Thread, the problem exists for large widget apps also). It seems like we are having this issue far more, percentage-wise, than other widget apps. I’ve searched through nearly every resource online (StackOverflow, etc.), which is why I’m posting a question now.

Things like deleting the app and reinstalling, restarting the phone, etc. have not been a fix either for these problematic users.

It doesn't seem to be tied to any iOS version (14, 15, etc.). As I have iOS 15, and it works fine. But, some users with iOS 15 are getting the bug.

Has anyone ran into this issue where a widget is not searchable? How did you fix it? Any resources are appreciated as I am at a major blocker right now. Since my app is primarily based on iOS widgets, this makes it basically unusable for certain users.

same issue here

iOS Widget not available in Widget Search on iOS 16
 
 
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