Hands-On With the New iOS 16 Lock Screen

iOS 16 introduces some major changes, including a total overhaul for the iOS Lock Screen. The Lock Screen looks different, it's more customizable, and it can do more than ever before, so we thought we'd do a quick hands-on video to give MacRumors readers a first glimpse at the revamped Lock screen.


The Lock Screen can be customized with unique fonts, colors, and, for the first time, widgets. On an iPhone running iOS 16, just unlock it and then long press to get to all of the various customization options.

Many of the photos that you set on the Lock Screen are dynamically displayed in front of the time, or you can have your Lock Screen shuffle between multiple photos. You can choose a custom date and time, changing the color and the font, and you can apply Photo styles to Lock Screen images.

You can set up multiple Lock Screens and then swap between them with a swipe, and you can assign Lock Screens to different focus modes.

Most notably, the Lock Screen now supports widgets. You can add widgets that display information like the weather, time, date, battery level, calendar events, alarms, time zones, Activity ring progress, and more, with Apple making a widget API available for developers.

Live Activities, another new feature, helps you keep track of things that are happening in real time like sports games right from the Lock Screen, and there's even a Lock Screen gallery that lets you quickly and easily change the look of your ‌iPhone‌.

With the Lock Screen changes, Apple also overhauled notifications. Incoming notifications are now shown at the bottom of the display, leaving your Lock Screen clear so you can see your widgets.

We'll have tons more on iOS 16 in the coming days, so make sure to stay tuned to MacRumors.

Related Forum: iOS 16

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Top Rated Comments

sniffies Avatar
41 months ago
It's unbelievable that after all these years, Apple still refuses to let us customize the two icons at the bottom.
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gloop69 Avatar
41 months ago
Everything on the LOCK screen should be optional. Why would they put flashlight and camera buttons, or music app controls on the LOCK screen that should be LOCKED. The entire point is to not accidentally push a button. It boggles my mind. I get that some people want quick access, but at least make it optional.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Joosst Avatar
41 months ago
Call me conservative but I preferred the time when good designers just came up with the best idea. I don’t believe this level of aesthetic customisation is necessary at all for the average user.
Functionally it would make sense (being able to change the flashlight button etc.). But why should users be able to pick fonts? Couldn’t Apple just choose the best one?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DaPizzaMan Avatar
41 months ago

Even if they did, I’m sure you would somehow still find something to nitpick
It's almost as if there's always room for improvement...
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HQuest Avatar
41 months ago
Horrible font choices, no option for resize these fonts, only one picture for both lock and home screen, limited count of widgets and no choice of placement for any of the items (date/time/sunset/sunrise, clock, widgets) other than wherever Apple felt like should be. For a oh-so-much-praised-revamped-redesigned-new Lock Screen, as is, looks like garbage and a move backwards. Great ideas, sub-par implementation.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Michael Scrip Avatar
41 months ago

Still can't arrange my icons the way I want!
Exactly.

They added all this lock screen stuff... brand new stuff... but we still can't easily arrange icons after 15 versions...

?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)