HCA vs Any Text · Widgets
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HCA
Control your home's lighting, thermostat, and automation devices remotely. Monitor sensors, trigger programs, and manage keypads. Uses geofencing for automated actions when entering or leaving areas.
- Remote device control
- Sensor status monitoring
- Program execution
- Keypad control
- Geofencing automation
- Log viewing and filtering
- Custom icon synchronization
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HCA is a companion app for the Home Control Assistant Server desktop application. It is a client that connects to your HCA Server home automation system over WiFi or Cell network. I have no affiliation with the makers of HCA Server - I'm just a user providing this app for free to people who already own HCA Server. With this app, you can: - Control your home lighting, thermostat and other automation devices remotely. - Check on the status of motion and door/window sensors and your alarm system. - Trigger the execution of HCA programs to expand your remote automation capability. - Control the keypads throughout your home. - Use GeoFences to cause an HCA program to execute when entering/leaving an area. - View the HCA log and filters - Synchronize your custom icons from the HCA server to the app. - View your custom HTML pages generated by the HCA Server - Much, Much more! NOTE: For geofences, the users location is NEVER transmitted to the server or anywhere else outside of the app. It is used only by iOS to track the geofence. The app only sends the user-supplied name of the geofence to the server. For a video showing how to setup and use the app, see here: Part 1: https://youtu.be/IRWOgmouC_c Part 2: https://youtu.be/-On3jNJHW6M Please provide feedback on what features you would like to see implemented next! *** Please give us a rating in the app store ***
Any Text · Widgets
Display any text on your Lock or Home Screen to keep important notes, goals, or tasks visible. Customize text with Markdown and utilize 20 different widgets. Integrates with Shortcuts for powerful automations and syncs across devices via iCloud.
- Customizable text widgets
- Lock Screen and Home Screen support
- Markdown styling (bold, italic, strikethrough)
- Live Activity and StandBy support
- iCloud device syncing
- Shortcuts app integration
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Put any kind of text on your Lock Screen or Home Screen so you won't miss it. It could be an important note, your goal, a list of tasks, etc. It also supports Live Activity and StandBy. The app includes 20 widgets that lets you put different text on different Lock Screen configurations or Home Screen. You can style parts of the text bold, italic, or strikethrough using Markdown. Syncs seamlessly across your devices with iCloud. Simply tap the widget to open the app to edit the text. ■ Shortcuts The app is scriptable through the Shortcuts app, enabling a lot of powerful use-cases. For example, you could use an automation to change the text at a certain point in the day or at certain places. The only limit is your creativity. ■ Support You can contact me through the feedback button in the app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: HCA at Free against Any Text · Widgets's $4.00. HCA also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 26.0). Any Text · Widgets's advantage is ratings volume (450 vs 6) and update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 4 months). On rating, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
HCA is free to download; Any Text · Widgets costs $4.00 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for HCA against 4.6 for Any Text · Widgets. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Any Text · Widgets has 450 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 80% of HCA's written reviews are positive against 82% of Any Text · Widgets's.
HCA ships an update every 4 months, Any Text · Widgets every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on June 8, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HCA | Any Text · Widgets |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.00 |
| Rating | 4.7 (6 ratings) — better | 4.6 (450 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews | 81.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 6 | 450 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 6 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | — | #72 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Advanced Quonset Technology, Inc | Sindre Sorhus |
Customer experience
HCA
Any Text · Widgets
Bugs and requests
HCA
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Any Text · Widgets
Reported bugs
3 issues- Widget not showing on Lock Screen
- Text not updating in a timely manner
- Force show when locked doesn't work
Requested features
6 requests- Allow alternating/rotating text
- Add custom font support
- Provide full-width widget options
- Add custom widget background colors
- Enable editing widgets directly
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- Add Apple Watch widget support
In-app purchases
HCA
No in-app purchases
Any Text · Widgets
No in-app purchases









