iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: The Definitive Guide!

Apple completely overhauled the Lock Screen in iOS 16, introducing all kinds of customization options that let you make your Lock Screen unique. You can choose widgets, customize the colors, and use emojis, photos, or built-in wallpapers for a one-of-a-kind look. In this article, we’ve rounded up the best iOS 16 Lock Screen tips and tricks for you to take full advantage of what Apple’s latest software has to offer.

A personalized Lock Screen in iOS 16 shows a mountain peak.

We’ve tried to cover as many iOS 16 Lock Screen tips and tricks as are currently available. If there are important iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and tricks that we’ve missed, don’t hesitate to let us know!

A personalized Lock Screen in iOS 16 shows a close-up of a woman and a young girl.

Without further ado, here are the best iOS 16 lock screen tips and tricks you should try today:

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Customize the Lock Screen

With iOS 16, Apple introduced a complete overhaul of the iOS Lock Screen, making it more customizable than ever and able to display information-rich widgets. The steps below shows you how to personalize your iPhone’s Lock Screen in ‌iOS 16‌.

A personalized Lock Screen in iOS 16 shows a dog and several widgets.

In ‌iOS 16‌, you can customize the Lock Screen with unique fonts, colors, and, for the first time, widgets. To get started, all you need to do is unlock your ‌iPhone‌ with Face ID or Touch ID, and then long press on the Lock Screen to enter the Lock Screen gallery.

The Lock Screen Gallery

If you have an Apple Watch, the interface you see will be familiar, since it’s very similar to the way watch face customization works. Lock Screens are categorized here into Collections (stock Apple Lock Screens), Photos, and Colors. You can swipe left and right to choose a different existing Lock Screen, and then long press one to set it.

Alternatively, you can tap Customize to personalize the currently selected Lock Screen, or tap the blue button to create a completely new one. Here we’ll focus on customizing an existing Lock Screen.

Customizing Your Lock Screen

Tapping Customize brings up an interactive view of your Lock Screen with several options at your disposal depending on the type of Lock Screen. If you’re customizing a “Color” Lock Screen, you can tap the colored circle on the left to change the color and hue, and you can swipe left and right to apply different styles to the image.

If you’re customizing a “Photo” Lock Screen, the bottom options let you choose another picture (or a selection of pictures if its a Shuffle wallpaper) from your photo library, set a filter, and enable or disable the Perspective Zoom/Depth Effect.

Note that the filters available to you by swiping left and right are intelligently generated automatically for the chosen image, so you’ll see different options here depending on whether, say, it’s a depth photo or a Color wallpaper. (If it’s a photo, bear in mind that choosing different filters may also apply different typeface styles to the time and date.) If you’re customizing a Lock Screen from Apple’s “Collections,” the options at the bottom of the screen are more limited.

Up top, you’ll see frames surrounding the time and date, as well as an area of space below the time. The center frame indicates that you can tap to edit the style of the time, while the frames above and below it can be tapped to add optional widgets.

The widgets that you can add above the time include another time zone, a set alarm, the next calendar event, a weather condition, your activity rings, the next reminder, and a chosen stock. Widgets that can be placed below the time are more info-rich and include device battery levels, Calendar, Clock, Fitness, Home, News, Reminders, Stocks, and Weather.

When you’ve finished customizing your Lock Screen, simply tap Done, and then tap the screen again to exit the Lock Screen gallery.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Create a New iPhone Lock Screen

In iOS 16, Apple has created a variety of customizable Lock Screen wallpaper types that you can choose from, including shuffling photos, Emoji backgrounds, Apple Collections, and Colors, as well as dynamic Weather and Astronomy screens that reflect real-time data.

And with the introduction of Lock Screen widgets, you can 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.

You can build a gallery of different Lock Screen wallpapers and switch between them on the fly with a swipe. If you have an Apple Watch, the Lock Screen gallery interface will be familiar to you, since it’s very similar to the way watch face customization works.

Let’s dive right in and create a new Lock Screen by following the steps below.

  1. Unlock your ‌iPhone‌ with Face ID or Touch ID
  2. Press and hold on the Lock Screen.
  3. Tap the blue button, or swipe leftwards all the way to the end and then tap Add New.
  4. Select a new wallpaper from the menu of options, which include People, Photos, Photo Shuffle, Emoji, Weather, Astronomy, Collections, and Color.
  5. Customize the look of your chosen Lock Screen by tapping the frames up top to change the clock style and add widgets above and below the time. For further personalization, use the filter and image options at the bottom of the screen, which will change depending on the type of wallpaper you’ve chosen.
  6. When you’ve finished customizing your new Lock Screen, tap Done in the top-right corner, and then tap the screen again to exit the Lock Screen gallery.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and tricks: How to Set a Photo As Your Lock Screen Wallpaper

In iOS 16, Apple has added multiple options to customize the iPhone Lock Screen, including the ability to change the font and color, apply filters, and even add information-rich widgets.

As a result of these feature additions, the interface for editing the Lock Screen has changed in ‌iOS 16‌. The steps below shows you how to navigate the process of setting a photo as your Lock Screen wallpaper.

  1. Unlock your ‌‌iPhone‌‌ with Face ID or Touch ID, then press and hold on the Lock Screen.
  2. Tap the blue button, or swipe leftwards all the way to the end and then tap Add New.
  3. Tap the Photos button in the top row of options.
  4. Choose a picture from your Photos library to use.
  5. Swipe left and right in the Lock Screen editor to preview the auto-generated styles that you can apply to the picture.
  6. When you’ve settled on the look you want, tap Done.
  7. Tap the Lock Screen you just created to activate it.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Shuffle Between Photos on Your iPhone’s Lock Screen

In iOS 16, you can easily shuffle your Lock Screen wallpaper. You can select multiple pictures from your photo library, and using the Shuffle option, you can opt to have the wallpaper shuffle between them on a set hourly or daily schedule, or every time you wake or tap your ‌iPhone‌ screen.

The following steps show you how it’s done.

  1. Wake your ‌iPhone‌ and use Face ID or Touch ID to unlock it.
  2. Press and hold on the Lock Screen until the wallpaper gallery appears.
  3. Tap the blue button in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
  4. Select Photo Shuffle from the wallpaper menu.
  5. Tap some photos in your photo library to include in the shuffle, then tap Add.
  6. Tap the ellipsis button (the three encircled dots) in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
  7. Tap Shuffle Frequency, then choose from Daily, Hourly, On Wake, and On Tap.
  8. Tap Done in the top-right corner to finish, then tap your new Photo Shuffle wallpaper to select it from the gallery.

Your new shuffle wallpaper will now be live. Tap or wake your ‌iPhone‌’s screen to change the photo, or wait for it to change automatically, depending on your chosen option.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Change Your Lock Screen’s Photo Shuffle Frequency

Once you’ve created a Photo Shuffle Lock Screen, you can adjust its shuffle frequency at any time to suit. The following steps show you how it’s done.

  1. Wake your ‌‌iPhone‌‌ and use Face ID or Touch ID to unlock it.
  2. Press and hold on the Lock Screen until the wallpaper gallery appears.
  3. If necessary, swipe to the Photo Shuffle Lock Screen wallpaper that you’d like to change the shuffle frequency for, then tap Customize.
  4. Tap the ellipsis button (the three encircled dots) in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
  5. Tap Shuffle Frequency, then choose from Daily, Hourly, On Wake, and On Tap.
  6. Tap Done in the top-right corner to finish, then tap your Photo Shuffle wallpaper in the gallery to activate it.

Your shuffle wallpaper will now be live with the adjusted shuffle frequency. Tap or wake your ‌‌iPhone‌‌’s screen to change the photo, or wait for it to change automatically, depending on your chosen option.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Create an Emoji Lock Screen Wallpaper

In iOS 16, you can create an emoji-based wallpaper. You can select up to six emoji symbols to include in your wallpaper, apply a layout style, and even change the background color.

The following steps show you how to create an emoji wallpaper for your ‌iPhone‌’s Lock Screen in ‌iOS 16‌.

  1. Unlock your ‌‌iPhone‌‌ with Face ID or Touch ID, then press and hold the Lock Screen.
  2. Tap the blue button, or swipe leftwards all the way to the end and then tap Add New.
  3. Tap the Emoji button in the top row of options.
  4. Using the emoji picker, add the emoji symbols you want to feature in the wallpaper, then tap the X to close the picker.
  5. Swipe left and right to preview the different layouts available, including Small Grid, Medium Grid, Large Grid, Rings, and Spiral.To change the background color, tap the ellipsis button (three encircled dots) in the bottom-right corner of the screen, then tap Background in the pop-up.
  6. Select a color and adjust the slider to get the hue that you want, then tap the X to close the color menu.
  7. When you’re happy, tap Done in the top-right corner of the screen, then tap the Lock Screen you just created in the wallpaper gallery to activate it.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Set a Dynamic Weather Lock Screen Wallpaper

In iOS 16, Apple has included a handful of dynamic Lock Screen wallpapers that adapt to specific real-world variables, including an astronomy wallpaper that shows the movement of the stars and a weather wallpaper that reflects current conditions.

The following steps show you how to set up a dynamic weather wallpaper on an ‌iPhone‌ running ‌iOS 16‌.

  1. Unlock your ‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌ with Face ID or Touch ID, then press and hold the Lock Screen.
  2. Tap the blue button, or swipe leftwards all the way to the end and then tap Add New.
  3. Tap the Weather button in the top row of options, or select the first wallpaper in the row under “Weather & Astronomy.”
  4. When you’re happy with the look and have added any widgets, tap Done in the top-right corner of the screen.
  5. To make the dynamic Weather wallpaper appear on both your Lock Screen and Home Screen, tap Set as Wallpaper Pair in the pop-up. Otherwise, tap Customize Home Screen to do so separately.
  6. Tap the Lock Screen you just created in the wallpaper gallery to activate it.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Set a Dynamic Astronomy Lock Screen Wallpaper

Apple has also included a handful of dynamic Lock Screen wallpapers that adapt to specific real-world variables, including an astronomy wallpaper that shows the current alignment of the Moon, Earth, and Solar System.

The astronomy wallpaper comes in several variations that let you view Earth from afar or close in on your current location, view the Moon from afar or in detail, or view the entire Solar System on your screen.

The following steps show you how to set up a dynamic astronomy wallpaper on an ‌iPhone‌ running ‌iOS 16‌.

  1. Unlock your ‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌ with Face ID or Touch ID, then press and hold the Lock Screen.
  2. Tap the blue button, or swipe leftwards all the way to the end and then tap Add New.
  3. Tap the Astronomy button in the top row of options.
  4. Swipe left and right on the wallpaper to preview the different astronomical view options, including Earth, Earth Detail, Moon, Moon Detail, and Solar System.
  5. When you’re happy with the look and have added any widgets, tap Done in the top-right corner of the screen.
  6. To make the dynamic wallpaper appear on both your Lock Screen and Home Screen, tap Set as Wallpaper Pair in the pop-up. Otherwise, tap Customize Home Screen to do so separately.
  7. Tap the Lock Screen you just created in the wallpaper gallery to activate it.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Change the Color of Your iPhone Lock Screen

If all you want is a minimal colored wallpaper with nothing else going on, Apple has included this option too. The following steps show you how to change the color of your Lock Screen on an ‌iPhone‌ running ‌iOS 16‌.

  1. Unlock your ‌‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌‌ with Face ID or Touch ID, then press and hold the Lock Screen.
  2. Tap the blue button, or swipe leftwards all the way to the end and then tap Add New.
  3. Tap the Color button in the top row of options.
  4. Use the color switches to select a color for your Lock Screen. You can also use the slider to change the hue.
  5. Swipe left and right to preview the color styles available. They include Vibrant, Tone, Deep, Vapor, Bright, and Solid.
  6. When you’re happy with the look and have added any widgets, tap Done in the top-right corner of the screen.
  7. To make the dynamic wallpaper appear on both your Lock Screen and Home Screen, tap Set as Wallpaper Pair in the pop-up. Otherwise, tap Customize Home Screen to do so separately.
  8. Tap the Lock Screen you just created in the wallpaper gallery to activate it.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Change the Clock Style on Your iPhone Lock Screen

In iOS 16, iPhone users can change not only the wallpaper but also the clock font and color, and with the addition of widgets, users can customize the look and control the information density.

As a result of all the new personalization features, Apple has overhauled the Lock Screen editing interface, which now has many similarities to the watch face gallery on Apple Watch. The following steps show you how you can change the font and color of the digital clock on your own Lock Screen.

  1. Unlock your ‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌ with Face ID or Touch ID, then press and hold the Lock Screen.
  2. Swipe to the Lock Screen that you want to adjust and then tap Customize.
  3. Select the Lock Screen option.
  4. Tap within the frame containing the digital clock readout.
  5. Use the menu of options for changing the font style and the color of the clock readout. You can also use the slider to adjust the hue of the selected color.
  6. When you’re happy with the look of the clock, tap Done in the top-right corner of the screen, then tap the Lock Screen in the wallpaper gallery to activate it.Lock Screen

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Change the Lock Screen Clock to Arabic Indic

In iOS 16, you can switch the time display from Arabic numerals to Arabic-Indic symbols. The following steps show you how it’s done in ‌iOS 16‌.

  1. Unlock your ‌iPhone‌ with Face ID or Touch ID.
  2. Press and hold on the Lock Screen to activate the gallery view.
  3. If necessary, swipe to the Lock Screen wallpaper you want to edit, then tap Customize.
  4. Tap within the frame surrounding the time to bring up the editor panel.
  5. Tap the globe icon in the top-left corner of the Font & Color panel.
  6. Select Arabic Indic from the options.
  7. When you’re finished editing, tap Done in the top-right corner of the screen.
  8. Tap the Lock Screen in the wallpaper gallery to activate it.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Add Widgets to Your iPhone Lock Screen

In iOS 16, you can display information-rich widgets. The steps below shows you how to add select widgets your iPhone’s Lock Screen in ‌‌iOS 16‌‌.

The widgets that you can add above the time on the Lock Screen include another time zone, a set alarm, the next calendar event, a weather condition, your activity rings, the next reminder, and a chosen stock. You can insert a widget alongside the date above the digital clock on the Lock Screen.

the time are more info-rich and include device battery levels, Calendar, Clock, Fitness, Home, News, Reminders, Stocks, and Weather. You can add up to four square symbol-based widgets below the time, or up to two rectangular widgets with more information, or alternatively a combination of two square widgets and one rectangular widget.

To get started adding widgets, all you need to do is unlock your ‌‌iPhone‌‌ with Face ID or Touch ID, and then long press on the Lock Screen to enter the Lock Screen gallery. The following steps guide you through the rest of the process.

  1. Tap the frame either above or below the time to bring up the widgets selector.
  2. Tap any of the suggested widgets at the top of the widgets selector to add them to the frame.
  3. You can also tap from the column list of apps to choose from a range of widgets available for each app. Swipe to the one you want, then tap it or drag it to the frame to place it where you want.
  4. When you’re finished arranging your widgets, tap Done in the top-right corner of the screen.
  5. Tap the current Lock Screen in the wallpaper gallery to activate it.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Display Activity Rings on Your iPhone Lock Screen

In iOS 16, Apple has made it possible to display Activity rings on the iPhone Lock Screen, allowing you to glance at your progress toward your movement goals throughout the day without having to unlock your ‌iPhone‌ or look at your Apple Watch.

The ability to show your Activity rings comes courtesy of Apple’s introduction of Lock Screen widgets. There are two widgets in the Fitness category: One shows your activity rings, while another larger widget shows your move, exercise, and stand stats for the day, and how close you are to reaching your goals.

The following steps show you how to add these widgets to the Lock Screen on an ‌iPhone‌ running ‌iOS 16‌.

  1. Raise your ‌iPhone‌ to wake it and unlock with Face ID or Touch ID, and then long press on the Lock Screen to enter the Lock Screen gallery.
  2. Swipe to the wallpaper you want your activity to appear on, and then tap Customize.
  3. Tap the frame below the time to bring up the widgets selector.
  4. Add the Activity rings widget by tapping it in the suggested widgets. Alternatively, scroll down the list of widgets and tap Fitness, and then tap the widget that you want to use, or drag it to the frame (you can add both widget types if you want).
  5. When you’re finished arranging your widgets, close the widget selector by tapping the X in the top-right corner of the panel, then tap Done in the top-right corner of the screen.
  6. Lastly, tap the current Lock Screen in the wallpaper gallery to activate it.

Even if you don’t have an Apple Watch, you can still track your movement (calories burned) in ‌iOS 16‌ via the Fitness app. That’s right – you can set a daily move goal even if you don’t have an Apple Watch, using the ‌‌iPhone‌‌ to track your progress toward reaching the goal.

iOS 16 Tips and Tricks: How to Set a Unique Lock Screen for Your Focus Mode

Apple has introduced several improvements to Focus modes in iOS 16, and one of them is the ability to link a custom Lock Screen to a particular Focus mode. With the wealth of personalization options that can now be applied to Lock Screens, this means you can customize them specifically to better reflect your focus.

One of the great things about ‌iOS 16‌ is that it allows you to make Lock Screens more informative or functional, and then switch to your preferred one when you need to. For example, when you’re at the office you might have a Lock Screen featuring work-focused widgets and a family photo. Or in the evening when you’re winding down before bed, you might prefer a minimal Lock Screen with fewer widgets and a soothing sunset wallpaper.

The great thing is that by linking a Lock Screen to a Focus mode, you can make the switch to your custom Lock Screen happen automatically. You can link Lock Screens to existing Focus modes by tapping the Focus button that appears in the Lock Screen gallery, which is accessed from your iPhone’s currently active Lock Screen with a long press.

You can also select a Lock Screen in the course of creating a new Focus mode in Settings. Here’s how it works in ‌iOS 16‌.

Setting a Lock Screen for Your Focus Mode

In this example, we’ve already customized a Lock Screen that we want to become active when the work day is done, and now we’re going to create a Focus mode to link it to by following the steps below.

  1. On ‌iPhone‌, go to Settings -> Focus, and tap the icon in the top-right corner of the screen to create a new Focus.
  2. Tap Custom in the next screen, proceed to give your Focus a name and related icon, then tap Next.
  3. Set any notification silence options for people and apps when your Focus is active, then under “Customize Screens,” choose the Lock Screen option.
  4. Create a New Lock Screen from the gallery, or Choose From Existing Lock Screens.
  5. Tap Done in the top-right corner.
  6. With your Lock Screen now linked to your Focus Mode, it will be activated automatically whenever you enable your Focus.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Show Upcoming Calendar Events on Your iPhone Lock Screen

In iOS 16, Apple lets you display upcoming calendar events directly on your iPhone’s Lock Screen. Keep reading to learn how it’s done.

The calendar Lock Screen widget comes in two flavors, allowing you to track the time of the next upcoming event or use a larger widget to show both the event name and its time.

To get started adding widgets, all you need to do is unlock your ‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌ with Face ID or Touch ID, and then long press on the Lock Screen to enter the Lock Screen gallery. The following steps guide you through the rest of the process.

  1. Tap the frame either above or below the time to bring up the widgets selector.
  2. Tap the suggested calendar events widget at the top of the widgets selector to add it to the selected frame.
  3. You can also tap Calendar in the column list of apps to choose from a couple of widget variants. Swipe to the one you want, then tap it or drag it to the frame to place it.
  4. When you’re finished arranging your widgets, tap Done in the top-right corner of the screen.
  5. Tap the current Lock Screen in the wallpaper gallery to activate it.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Show the Weather Forecast on Your iPhone Lock Screen

In iOS 16, Apple lets you display the local weather forecast directly on your iPhone’s Lock Screen using widgets. Keep reading to learn how it’s done.

The weather Lock Screen widget comes in several flavors. If you insert a widget alongside the date above the digital clock, you can opt to display moon events, sun events, conditions, location, rain, air quality, UV index, or wind.

Directly below the digital clock there is a larger oblong space where you can place widgets horizontally next to each other. Eight optional weather widgets are available here to see moon events, sun events, conditions, location, rain, air quality, UV index, or wind. Note that only the current weather conditions and moon events come in the larger widget format.

To get started adding widgets, all you need to do is unlock your ‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌ with Face ID or Touch ID, and then long press on the Lock Screen to enter the Lock Screen gallery. The following steps guide you through the rest of the process.

  1. Tap the frame either above or below the time to bring up the widgets selector.
  2. Tap the suggested weather widget at the top of the widgets selector to add it to the selected frame.
  3. You can also tap Weather in the column list of apps to choose from a selection of variants. Swipe to the one you want, then tap it or drag it to the frame to place it.
  4. When you’re finished arranging your widgets, tap Done in the top-right corner of the screen.
  5. Tap the current Lock Screen in the wallpaper gallery to activate it.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Display iPhone Battery Percentage on Your Lock Screen

In iOS 16, you can use widgets to display the battery percentage directly on your Lock Screen. The following steps show you how to add these widgets to the Lock Screen on an ‌‌iPhone‌‌ running ‌‌iOS 16‌‌.

  1. Raise your ‌‌iPhone‌‌ to wake it and unlock with Face ID or Touch ID, and then long press on the Lock Screen to enter the Lock Screen gallery.
  2. Swipe to the wallpaper that you want your ‌iPhone‌ battery level to appear on, and then tap Customize.
  3. Tap the frame below the digital clock to bring up the widgets selector.
  4. Below the suggested widgets, select Batteries from the column list of widgets.
  5. Tap the rectangular battery widget to add it below the time on your Lock Screen, or manually drag it to the frame to place it.
  6. When you’re finished arranging your widgets, close the widget selector by tapping the X in the top-right corner of the panel, then tap Done in the top-right corner of the screen.
  7. Lastly, tap the current Lock Screen in the wallpaper gallery to activate it.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Change Notifications Layout on Your Lock Screen

Because of the new Lock Screen design, notifications now come in from the bottom of the display, rather than the top. This makes for a more subtle notification that stays out of the way of any widgets you have set up. You can swipe upward from the bottom of the display to see the notifications, and then swipe back down to hide them away.

You can also pinch the notifications list on the Lock Screen to change the layouts. Notifications can appear as a standard list, a stack, or a number count telling you how many notifications are awaiting your attention. You can also select one of these layouts as the default for your Lock Screen using a new menu in Settings.

  1. Launch the Settings app on your ‌iPhone‌.
  2. Tap Notifications.
  3. Tap Display As.
  4. Tap to select one of the following options: Count, Stack, and List.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Delete a Lock Screen Wallpaper

iOS 16‌ also brings a Lock Screen wallpaper gallery, allowing you to build a gallery of different Lock Screen wallpapers and switch between them on the fly with a swipe.

If you have an Apple Watch, the Lock Screen gallery interface will be familiar to you, since it’s very similar to the way watch face customization works. Even the process of deleting wallpapers from the gallery is similar. Here’s how it’s done.

  1. Unlock your ‌‌iPhone‌‌ with Face ID or Touch ID.
  2. Press and hold on the Lock Screen to enter the wallpaper gallery.
  3. Swipe to the wallpaper you want to delete.
  4. Swipe upwards on the selected wallpaper.
  5. Tap the red trash icon that appears.
  6. Tap Delete at the prompt to confirm.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Disable Lock Screen Depth Effect

One of the new features is a new depth effect that works well with images of people in your Photo library. When you’re creating a new Lock Screen, a “People” category suggests images of people that you’ve photographed that will work with the new depth effect.

On select images, the time will go under the person or object in the photo to create a layered look, similar to how Portrait mode photos look on the Apple Watch, and the results are often quite impressive.

Often, but not always. Sometimes the photo you use will have the depth effect automatically applied, but it may conceal too much of the time on your Lock Screen, or it may just look wrong. In that case, you can easily disable the depth effect. The following steps show you how it’s done.

  1. Unlock your ‌‌iPhone‌‌ with Face ID or Touch ID.
  2. Press and hold on the Lock Screen to enter the wallpaper gallery.
  3. Swipe if necessary to the Lock Screen wallpaper with the depth effect, then tap Customize.
  4. Tap the ellipsis icon (three encircled dots) in the bottom-right corner.
  5. Tap Depth Effect to uncheck the option.
  6. Tap Done in the top-right corner when you’ve finished making changes.
  7. Tap the wallpaper again in the gallery to activate it.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Automatically Switch to a Lock Screen at a Set Time

One of the great things about ‌iOS 16‌ is that it allows you to make Lock Screens more informative or functional, and then switch to your preferred one when you need to. For example, when you’re at the office you might have a Lock Screen featuring work-focused widgets and a family photo. Or in the evening when you’re winding down before bed, you might prefer a minimal Lock Screen with fewer widgets and a soothing sunset wallpaper. Here’s how it works in ‌iOS 16‌.

Creating a Scheduled Focus With a Custom Lock Screen

In this example, we’ve already customized a Lock Screen that we want to become active when the work day is done, and now we’re going to create a Focus mode to link it to by following the steps below.

  1. On ‌iPhone‌, go to Settings -> Focus, and tap the icon in the top-right corner of the screen to create a new Focus.
  2. Tap Custom in the next screen, proceed to give your Focus a name and related icon, then tap Next.
  3. Set any notification silence options for people and apps when your Focus is active, then under “Customize Screens,” choose the Lock Screen option.
  4. Create a New Lock Screen from the gallery, or Choose From Existing Lock Screens.
  5. With your Lock Screen linked, tap Add Automation under “Turn on Automatically.”
  6. select Time.
  7. Toggle on Schedule and choose the time that you want your Focus to become active and on which days of the week.

With your new Focus mode now scheduled, your associated Lock Screen will also become active at the same time.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Automatically Switch Lock Screens at a Set Location

In this example, we’ve already customized a Lock Screen that we want to become active when the work day is done, and now we’re going to create a Focus mode to link it to by following the steps below.

  1. On ‌iPhone‌, go to Settings -> Focus, and tap the icon in the top-right corner of the screen to create a new Focus.
  2. Tap Custom in the next screen, proceed to give your Focus a name and related icon, then tap Next.
  3. Set any notification silence options for people and apps when your Focus is active, then under “Customize Screens,” choose the Lock Screen option.
  4. Create a New Lock Screen from the gallery, or Choose From Existing Lock Screens.
  5. With your Lock Screen linked, tap Add Automation under “Turn on Automatically.”
  6. In the New Automation screen, select Location.
  7. Use the input field to search for a location, tap it to select, then tap Done.

With your new Focus mode now location-activated, your associated Lock Screen will also become active when you next arrive at that location.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Hide Notifications on Your iPhone Lock Screen

The way notifications show up has also changed, and you can now choose how they appear on your Lock Screen, and even hide them altogether, to be revealed by you with a tap.

Due to the Lock Screen changes, notifications in ‌iOS 16‌ are displayed at the bottom of the screen, and are stacked on top of one another by default. But they don’t have to remain stacked if you don’t want them to. It’s possible to set them to appear in the traditional list format, or you can have them displayed simply as a number (the number of notifications) that you can tap to reveal the notifications waiting for you.

The following steps show you how to change the way notifications appear on your ‌iPhone‌ Lock Screen in ‌iOS 16‌.

  1. Launch the Settings app on your ‌iPhone‌.
  2. Tap Notifications.
  3. Tap Display As.
  4. Tap Count to select it.

iOS 16 Lock Screen Tips and Tricks: How to Crop a Lock Screen Wallpaper

To make photographs look better on Lock Screens, Apple has also built a number of photo editing options into the gallery interface, including a quick and simple way to crop photos so that they fit the screen. The following steps show you how it works.

  1. Unlock your ‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌ with Face ID or Touch ID.
  2. Press and hold on the Lock Screen to enter the wallpaper gallery.
  3. Swipe if necessary to the Lock Screen wallpaper that you want to crop, then tap Customize.
  4. Perform a pinch gesture on the wallpaper to crop the image and get the desired effect.
  5. Tap Done in the top-right corner when you’ve finished making changes.
  6. Tap Set as Wallpaper Pair to also add the image to your Home Screen.
  7. Tap the wallpaper again in the gallery to activate it.

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