It sure seems like Apple is getting friendlier toward bitcoin, doesn’t it? Following the company’s recent keynote in San Francisco, California, updated App Store rules were released that permitted bitcoin and other digital currency apps in the App Store — a far cry from the days Apple removed wallet apps arbitrarily.
And with Tuesday’s news that Yahoo Finance is now showing bitcoin prices (also Google Finance as of today), iPhone users are now able to easily add bitcoin prices to their device’s notification center — perfectly viewable whether the device is locked or unlocked.
The first think you’ll need to do is open your iPhone’s default “Stocks” app. I have mine stored in a folder called “Other”.
Because Apple’s Stocks application pulls data from Yahoo Finance, you’ll have the option of adding the bitcoin price.
So once you’ve opened up Stocks, tap the settings icon in the lower right-hand corner:
We’ll want to take this time to now add the ticker for bitcoin by tapping the plus sign in the upper left-hand corner.
Now you can type in “BTCUSD=X” (without quotes, of course). It may even auto-suggest it. Once selected, click Done in the upper right.
Getting it in notification center
Now that you’ve added bitcoin price data to Stocks, you’ll need to access your phone’s main Settings app (reachable through the home screen) and enable the Stocks widget in the Notification Center menu.
Once done, you’re basically all set. When you swipe down on your screen (be it when the phone is locked or unlocked) you’ll get a quick glimpse at the current price.
You can tap it to be sent to the Stocks app, where you can view an interactive chart:
That’s all there is to it.