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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. This article shows you how to personalize your iPhone's Lock Screen in iOS 16.

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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.

lock-screen-gallery.jpg

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.

lock-screen-color.jpg

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.

lock-screen-photo.jpg

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.

lock-screen-widgets.jpg

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. Note that you can also customize the current Lock Screen by going into Settings -> Wallpaper & Lock Screens.

Article Link: How to Customize Your iPhone's Lock Screen
 
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Do the depth photos only work with iPhone shot portrait photos or can this “subject in front of time” efffect be done using any image with an isolated subject or bokeh background?
 
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Looks like the widgets are available in the same size as a single app icon. Does that mean these small widgets are available on the Home Screen too?
 
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It looks like you can’t have a separate Home Screen photo from the Lock Screen if I’m seeing this right (i.e. you can’t use a personal photo for the Lock Screen and a stock photo for the Home Screen)?
 
It looks like you can’t have a separate Home Screen photo from the Lock Screen if I’m seeing this right (i.e. you can’t use a personal photo for the Lock Screen and a stock photo for the Home Screen)?
You can change it, but it's weird! In the settings app, in wallpaper you can tap on the Home Screen layout and choose a different picture, making it different from the Lock Screen. it is a bit convoluted and not as clear as it used to be, but I think they just need to update the settings app to make home screens separate from lock screens.
 
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It looks like you can’t have a separate Home Screen photo from the Lock Screen if I’m seeing this right (i.e. you can’t use a personal photo for the Lock Screen and a stock photo for the Home Screen)?
I think it’s a bug for now. You can go into the wallpaper settings and change the Home Screen photo after you set the lock screen.
 
Am I the only one disappointed that widgets are limited to just one row?
Hopefully, they won’t, they let us put widgets where the time is and use a smaller widget slot for the time.
Or the time in the top left where it says VERIZONx
How many widgets do you need? Curious here
if Apple utilized the dead space on the home screen properly , we could get like 5 rows of widgets with up to like 6 small widgets slots in each row.
apple is the king of dead space.
The new Home app is filled with it.
Huge buttons that could be small.
Blank spaces everywhere.

They design for 80 year olds who can’t see their phone
 
if Apple utilized the dead space on the home screen properly , we could get like 5 rows of widgets with up to like 6 small widgets slots in each row.
apple is the king of dead space.
The new Home app is filled with it.
Huge buttons that could be small.
Blank spaces everywhere.

They design for 80 year olds who can’t see their phone
Or rather it's a design meant so that people can enjoy the background picture selected.
 
The depth photo looks cool but am I the only that kinda wants to be able to see the time properly? 8 and 9 times will be hard to tell if the bottom of that digit is hidden. I guess if you have it around the minutes it's less of an issue I guess?
 
You can swipe left and right to choose a different existing Lock Screen
Thanks God! The days when I used to accidentally swipe left on the lock screen and activate the camera are over!
 
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Do the depth photos only work with iPhone shot portrait photos or can this “subject in front of time” efffect be done using any image with an isolated subject or bokeh background?

There's a photo of a Joshua tree in the top of the post showing that depth effect, so it looks like the algorithm may be able to pick out simple subjects in front of clean backgrounds, and not just portraits. It also may work based on reading the metadata from the image, and locating which object the focus was set on.
 
All this customisation seems great but we still can’t change the torch shortcut in the bottom left? ☺️ Sorry if I’ve missed any mention of it. Seems like an oversight considering how many people accidentally turn on the torch.
 
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Do the depth photos only work with iPhone shot portrait photos or can this “subject in front of time” efffect be done using any image with an isolated subject or bokeh background?
Not limited to portrait mode photos.
 
Thanks God! The days when I used to accidentally swipe left on the lock screen and activate the camera are over!

Correction: This is only when the Gallery view is activated and you are in Lock Screen edit mode. When not in that mode, a swipe still goes to the camera.
 
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