iOS 16 lock screen: How to edit new iPhone Lock Screen and add widgets

Apple has finally launched iOS 16, with this huge new update dropping on millions of iPhones earlier this week. The upgrade is arguably Apple’s biggest iOS update in years, and there’s one headline feature that iPhone users will surely rush to try out soon after downloading – the ability to edit your Lock Screen. For the first time ever, Apple will now let you change the way your Lock Screen looks, with the font and colour fully customisable along with ability to add a range of custom-made widgets which offer easy access to information when you wake your iPhone.

If you’re trying to change your iOS 16 Lock Screen and have been left scratching your head trying to edit it, then that could be because you’ve dived into the Settings app first.

This app is where iOS users in the past would have changed their wallpaper, but if you want to edit your Lock Screen you need to do things slightly differently.

Here’s a step-by-step guide for editing your Lock Screen on iOS 16…

• First of all, wake your iPhone from Sleep so you can see your Lock Screen and then press and hold anywhere on it.

• You will see an interface where you can edit your Lock Screen, with a big Customise button at the bottom.

• If you currently have the same wallpaper that you used in iOS 15 on your Lock Screen in iOS 16 you will have to re-add it before you can start tweaking it. To re-add this photo as your new wallpaper press the + button in the bottom right-hand corner.

• Once you’ve done that you will be able to swipe between your old wallpaper (from iOS 15) and the one you’ve just added. Swipe to that one that’s new and then tap Customise.

• This is where you’ll be able to edit your Lock Screen. You will see round boxes appear around the date, another one around the time and another just below the time section. Click any of these boxes to edit what appears in them.

• If you tap the date at the top you’ll be able to add a widget that appears alongside it. This helps you access a range of information at a quick glance, with widgets available for things like reminders, the weather, stock market information and more.

• When you tap the time section you’ll be able to change the font style for the time as well as the colour for the date, time and widget information. Eight different fonts are available and different pre-set colours as well – but you can also use a picker button (located at the far right side) to choose any colour for the font that you want.

• Finally, if you click the box below the time you’ll be able to add in more widgets. There’s only a limited amount of space so you’ll have to play around and see what widgets fit in. Each widget is available in a range of formats which show different information and come in two sizes – one that has a width of one widget app icon, the other is the size of two widget app icons side-by-side. The latter helps display more data, but takes up more room. And space is at a premium – in total there are four blocks of space – so you can put in two double-sized widgets, four of the widgets (that are the size of an individual icon) or one double-sized widget and two individual ones.

If you often change your Lock Screen, you can create a range of different designs that you can quickly change by long-pressing anywhere on your Lock Screen and then swiping to another one you’ve already created.

Apple also offers a range of pre-made Lock Screen designs such as Weather and Astronomy which have some cool animations. And you can even create a wallpaper that is made up entirely of emojis of your choice.

You can also change filters for Lock Screen designs, link it to different Focus settings such as Personal and Work and change the way Notifications appear on your Lock Screen.

In terms of the widgets available that you can add to your Lock Screen, widgets are available for first-party apps such as News, Weather, Reminders, Calendar and Clock.

Third-party widgets are also available for a range of apps such as the Motivation app and Flighty.

And that’s not all – Google has also said it’s releasing iOS 16 Lock Screen widgets for popular apps like Search, Maps and Gmail – but these aren’t available yet.