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

Top Rated Comments

sniffies Avatar
25 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
25 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
25 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
25 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
25 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
25 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)

Popular Stories

Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Rumored to Add These 10 New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
iPad And Calculator App Feature 1

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
macbook pro purple february

Best Buy Introduces Record Low Prices on Apple's M3 MacBook Pro for Members

Thursday April 25, 2024 7:41 am PDT by
Best Buy is discounting a collection of M3 MacBook Pro computers today, this time focusing on the 14-inch version of the laptop. Every deal in this sale requires you to have a My Best Buy Plus or Total membership, although non-members can still get solid second-best prices on these MacBook Pro models. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a...