Hands-On With iOS 10's Overhauled Lock Screen

Tuesday June 14, 2016 5:02 pm PDT by Juli Clover
The Lock screen experience in iOS 10 has been completely overhauled, with a new widgets side panel, a redesigned Control Center, revamped notifications, quicker camera access, and the removal of the iconic "Slide to Unlock" feature.

As can be seen in the hands-on video below, Slide to Unlock, formerly accessible through a right swipe, has been retired. Swiping right now brings up a widgets side panel, while swiping left opens up the Camera app. The widgets panel houses widgets formerly located in the "Today" view of the Notification Center.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
The unlocking mechanism has been changed because with Touch ID, it was easy to bypass the Lock screen too quickly, making it difficult to see notifications.

New on the Lock screen is a "Raise to Wake" feature, exclusive to the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, and SE, all three of which have an A9/M9 processor. There's also a redesigned Control Center and rich notifications, both of which support 3D Touch. In the Control Center, a 3D Touch on Flashlight, Timer, or Camera brings up different options, while 3D pressing on an incoming notification offers up options like replying to messages directly from the Lock screen.

In case you missed it, make sure to check out our seven minute WWDC 2016 video, which features a quick rundown on all of the new iOS, macOS Sierra, tvOS, and watchOS features Apple introduced this week, and stay tuned to MacRumors for more in-depth software videos.

[ 258 comments ]

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Avatar
blairh
46 months ago
Making me swipe left to control music playback is terrible.
Rating: 42 Votes
Avatar
bigcstyle4
46 months ago
So does this mean someone can reply to your messages, interact with notifications, etc, without unlocking the phone?
Rating: 27 Votes
Avatar
Suckfest 9001
46 months ago
Not sure if people replied to this yet, but

Thank goodness. On the 6S, the touch ID is so fast that it's almost impossible to turn on without unlocking the phone. This will really help.

iPhone still unlocks if you click the home button once to wake up the display. The same exact problem still exists. I don't know why people think this is fixed.

Semantically it makes sense to take widgets out of the Notification Pane, but this presumably means you'll have to exit whatever app you're in to get to your widgets. I pull down Notifications all the time when I'm in an app in order to use the Hue widget. Seems like this will require a couple more steps. Also not sure why the Play/Pause needs its own control center area.

The widgets are still in the notification centre when you are in an app. Swipe left on the notification centre.

So does this mean someone can reply to your messages, interact with notifications, etc, without unlocking the phone?

Yep, just like iOS 9. Nothing changed at all.

So nobody here questions that a thief is able to see your messages, or personal information by swiping or using force touch. Or that they can just use airplane mode or that they can just take out the SIM and then Find My iPhone doesn't work? Surely this was considered during development right?

...just like iOS 9. Please do your research before getting other people worried about non-issues. You can disable control centre access from lock screen. Again, just like iOS 9. And there's nothing Apple can do about the ability to take out SIM cards.

I'm not a fan of how Widgets are now available in only two places, the left of the lock screen and the left of the home screen. Before, I could access widgets from anywhere on the device through Notification Center. This is what made them useful, the ability to see them from anywhere.

Widgets will essentially be useless for me if I have to exit the app I am using to see them. I really hope that they change this.

They're still available if you swipe left in the notification centre as long as you're in an app.

And yet, there's still no weather display on the lock screen...

What has Apple got against this feature?

You can add it to lock screen widgets, just a left swipe away.

I am very worried about security with the new unlocking system.

K well downgrade to iOS 6 because nothing has changed security-wise since iOS 9. You're able to reply to messages in iOS 9 from the lock screen too, you know... Or maybe not.

Theres too many security holes in the new lock screen...

* Replying with messages
* Calendar access
* Mail access

That can cause serious issues, especially with business-related stuff.

rofl it's... Oh I give up.
Rating: 25 Votes
Avatar
341328
46 months ago
Thank goodness. On the 6S, the touch ID is so fast that it's almost impossible to turn on without unlocking the phone. This will really help.
Rating: 19 Votes
Avatar
GhostRaider
46 months ago
So nobody here questions that a thief is able to see your messages, or personal information by swiping or using force touch. Or that they can just use airplane mode or that they can just take out the SIM and then Find My iPhone doesn't work? Surely this was considered during development right?
Rating: 18 Votes
Avatar
n8cousins
46 months ago

Theres too many security holes in the new lock screen...



Except that's completely false. The lock screen is exactly as secure/insecure as your current iOS. The only differences are visual.

I wish people would actually use this stuff before making negative, uninformed comments.
Rating: 15 Votes
Avatar
HiVolt
46 months ago
And yet, there's still no weather display on the lock screen...

What has Apple got against this feature?
Rating: 12 Votes
Avatar
Ploki
46 months ago

So nobody here questions that a thief is able to see your messages, or personal information by swiping or using force touch. Or that they can just use airplane mode or that they can just take out the SIM and then Find My iPhone doesn't work? Surely this was considered during development right?


How is that different now?
Rating: 11 Votes
Avatar
bigchrisfgb
46 months ago

So nobody here questions that a thief is able to see your messages, or personal information by swiping or using force touch. Or that they can just use airplane mode or that they can just take out the SIM and then Find My iPhone doesn't work? Surely this was considered during development right?

Same as iOS 9 where you can opt to turn off those abilities on the lock screen.
Rating: 11 Votes
Avatar
840quadra
46 months ago
Looks great so far.

Everyone be sure to voice your concerns with Apple directly during the beta period. Letting them know now gives us a better chance for them to modify it before this all goes live.
Rating: 11 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]