Apple has just rolled out the most significant update to the iOS lock screen, bringing a plethora of features to make you happy. The theme of this update is a customization that gives you complete control over the look and functionality of your iPhone’s lock screen.
The new lock screen features are available in iOS 16, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be coming to iPad until next year, most likely with iPadOS 17. There are plenty of new wallpaper options, cool effects, Focus integration, and data. widgets, to name but a few of the new features.
1. Switch lock screen
Apple iOS 16 lets you create multiple lock screens that you can switch between at any time, and you don’t even need to leave the lock screen to do so.
To change the lock screen, touch and hold the picture, date, or time on the lock screen, then swipe left or right and tap the theme you want. This is the only way to switch between lock screens as there is no option to switch in Settings -> Wallpaper. However, you can visit the Wallpaper settings to add new wallpapers that will switch the lock screen to whatever you create.
2. Lock screen gallery
To create a new lock screen, open the lock screen switcher. Then either swipe all the way down and select the Add New option or hit the plus button at the bottom. If you only have one default lock screen, you can select “Customize”and then “Add New”from the action menu.
You can also unlock your iPhone and go to Settings -> Wallpaper, then choose Add New Wallpaper. And if you only have one default lock screen, you can select “Customize”below the lock screen image, then click “Add New”.
A new lock screen gallery should appear where you can choose any available wallpaper theme or a custom one.
3. Live weather wallpaper
If you want to see the latest weather conditions whenever you look at your iPhone, the new weather live wallpaper can help. Select it and it will visually show you the current local conditions in the background, such as moving clouds or rain, and provide weather statistics by date and time.
4. Real time astronomical wallpaper
There are also astronomical wallpapers that update in real time. You can choose between a close-up of the Earth, the entire planet, a close-up of the Moon, the entire Moon, or the Solar System. As astronomical conditions change, so will your wallpaper.
5. Wallpaper with emoji
Your wallpaper can also be fully emoji if you like. Select a pre-made image or click the emoji button. You can disable or select from one to six characters to include in the graphics. You can then change the background color and switch between different views, including small, medium, and large grids, rings, and a spiral design.
6. Gradient and solid color wallpapers
You can also choose new color wallpapers. The Color section has some pre-made options, but you can also click Color at the top to choose your own background color, intensity, and filter. There are bright, deep, tonal, fallow, and vibrant filters, and a good option if you don’t like gradients.
7. More wallpapers designed by Apple
There are more ready-made options in the Collections category. Here you’ll see the default iOS 16 look and feel, dynamic options, timely themes like pride and unity, and other designs.
8. Original wallpaper for iPhone
As a special surprise, the Collections category has a new clownfish wallpaper. Although I say “new”, the still image is quite old but has never been published. It only appeared on the iPhone when Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone, so it’s a real treat.
9. Wallpaper photo shuffling
While you can upload one of your photos as your lock screen wallpaper, you can choose Shuffle Photo to have iOS 16 automatically change the background every hour, every day, every time you wake up your iPhone, or every time you tap lock screen. You can choose between suggested ones such as Nature, use Featured Photos, or select images manually.
10. Suggestions for photo wallpapers
If you only want one photo as your lock screen wallpaper, select Photos. You’ll see new suggestions that iOS 16 intelligently selects from your photo library in the Favorites tab. You may see other tabs such as “Nature”which will help you quickly select the right background. You can also just search for the desired image as before.
11. Album of smart people
While you could always use pictures of people as your lock screen wallpaper in the past, it’s now easier to find them. In iOS 15, the People Smart Album of Photos was not displayed when viewing images in Wallpaper settings. The lock screen gallery in iOS 16 offers that – tap the People button to see everyone in your library. You will also be able to find the category of people using the “Photos”button.
12. Photo wallpaper styles
When using an image uploaded from your photo library, you can swipe left or right to select a stylized wallpaper look. You can leave the image in its natural state, or use black and white, duotone, color blur, studio lighting, or a color background filter, depending on the type of photo and composition.
13. Multi-layer photo effects
You may notice that some of the available lock screen wallpapers and even some of your own photos contain elements that dynamically override the time and date when there are no widgets. It does the stock iOS 16 wallpapers, as well as the striped wallpapers and some astronomical wallpapers. For your own images, this works best on portrait photos.
This effect works on iPhone XS and newer iPhone models.
14. Date/Time Font and Color Picker
The data and time displayed on the lock screen was WYSIWYG prior to iOS 16. You can now switch between six different fonts, many different colors, and even symbols in other languages. When you change the font color, it also changes the colors of all the widgets (which we haven’t even gotten to yet!).
15. Lock screen widgets
Now for my favorite part: the widgets. You’ll see the widgets already on your lock screen if you choose one of the available designs in the gallery that has them, but you can edit the ones you see whenever you want. Moreover, you can add widgets to any lock screen design.
Widgets display frequently updated data from their main applications. For example, the Weather app has a widget that shows the weather for any location you choose, and the Calendar app has a widget to show the date or next event. You can tap on most widgets when your iPhone is unlocked and on the lock screen to navigate to their related apps.
You can place widgets above and below the time. The widget’s top space, where the date resides, can be customized to include lunar events, calendar events, activity ring progress, and other widget statistics. The date will always remain in the same field without the name of the month.
The bottom widget space allows you to add up to four small widgets. Some middle widgets take up two spaces, so there can be up to two. Right now, you’ll only see Apple widgets for Battery, Calendar, Clock, Fitness, Home, News, Reminders, Stocks, and Weather.
However, many of Apple’s home screen widgets are missing, including the App Store, Books, Contacts, Files, Find My, Game Center, Mail, Maps, Music, Notes, Photos, Podcasts, Screen Time, Shortcuts, Siri Suggestions., Smart Stack, Tips, TV and Wallet.
16. Third Party Lock Screen Widgets
As Apple did with Today View widgets in iOS 8 and home screen widgets in iOS 14, third-party developers can create lock screen widgets for their apps using the new WidgetKit API. Widgets will be in text, round or rectangular format. A few apps you can try right now include TickTick and Countdowns.
17. Screen lock and focus pairing
When creating a new lock screen, tapping “Focus”on the wallpaper preview lets you link one of your focuses. You can choose between Do Not Disturb mode and any focus you set.
When you link a focus mode to a specific lock screen theme, it will automatically switch to that theme when that focus mode is enabled. Similarly, if you switch the lock screen to another with the appropriate focus mode, that focus mode will be activated.
For example, in the screenshots below, Do Not Disturb is assigned to one of my color themes. It automatically syncs wallpaper, font and widgets with this theme whenever Do Not Disturb is enabled. If you set a particular focus mode to multiple lock screens, the first lock screen associated with it will be used as the default.
18. Add new lock screens from the Focus menu.
You can link focus to the lock screen switch, but you can also do it from Settings -> Focus. Tap the focus you want and you’ll see a Customize Screens section that shows you the lock screens assigned to you. Tap Change to set or remove a different lock screen, or tap Select if none is already assigned.
In the lock screen selection box that appears, you’ll see suggested lock screens that are good for focus, but you can also open the gallery to see more, or use an existing lock screen.
19. Add new lock screens from wallpaper settings
While it’s most convenient to add lock screens and switch between them from the lock screen, you can also go to Settings -> Wallpaper, where you can tap Add New Wallpaper to select a new background from the lock screen gallery. If you’re currently using a custom lock screen, you can tap “Customize”below the lock screen preview to change widgets, colors, and more.
20. Appropriate home screen wallpaper
Whether you add wallpapers from the lock screen editor, wallpaper settings, or the Focus menu, any lock screen background you choose from the gallery can also be your home screen wallpaper. Just click “Set as Wallpaper Pair”when prompted. You can change your desktop wallpaper in the wallpaper settings if you change your mind. You can make the corresponding background plain or blurry, choose a gradient or solid color, or choose an image from your photo library.
21. Live activity
Later this year, Apple will add the ability to track real-time activities right on the lock screen. Online activities include, for example, tracking a trip, tracking package delivery, ordering food, and getting sports scores live from Apple TV+. Interactive actions are displayed in a small window at the bottom of the lock screen.
22. Third party live action
Later this year, there will be a new Live Activity API that third-party developers can use to create Live Activities for their applications.
23. Updated design.
Apple has redesigned the Now Playing window on the lock screen. It’s more compact, but still displays much of the same information, and sits at the bottom of the lock screen like a Live Activity, rather than below the time the widgets are currently moving to. The album art occupies your wallpaper between the player and time, and the colors around the image blend in with the cover.
24. Notifications at the bottom
Prior to iOS 16, notifications appeared on the lock screen and in the Notification Center under the time, but now they appear at the bottom, and there’s a nice new animation when you swipe up from the bottom, which triggers alerts.
25. Notifications are bold
According to Apple’s website, the lock screen also uses “bold text and images”to “make notifications visually pop.”However, we have not noticed any changes in this regard. Stay tuned!
26. Different types of notifications
In Settings -> Notifications, you’ll see a new “Display As”option, and you can change it from “Stack”to “Counter”or “List”to customize how notifications are displayed. No matter which view you choose, you can tap on lock screen notifications to switch between layouts in context.
27. Improved timer interface
In iOS 16, Apple added a new timer UI for the lock screen, which is also at the bottom of the screen. You can pause and stop the timer right from the lock screen.
