iOS 16 Lock Screen: How to Customize Your iPhone

Apple recently released iOS 16 with new features that make it easier to use your iPhone. For example, Messages has added the ability to edit/unsend messages, SharePlay will also work in Messages, iCloud Shared Photo Library allows you to seamlessly share pictures in a separate iCloud library, and Family Sharing has been upgraded to allow parents to set up their children's devices.

About iOS 16 lock screen

Among them, the most prominent feature announced by Apple is the new iOS 16 lock screen customization options. The lock screen in iOS 16 is getting an overhaul. It allows you to change the clock font, font color and wallpaper, add widgets and reposition photos, and even add a depth effect for pictures taken in Portrait Mode.

Besides, focus can now extend to the lock screen. You can create new lock screens related to your Focus Modes, such as work and play, with customizations and widgets for each mode.

Faced with such creative functions, are you excited? Today, in this step-by-step guide, we’re going to take you through the entire process of creating a brand new iPhone Lock Screen from scratch on iOS 16. Let’s go ahead.

How to customize iOS 16 lock screen

iOS 16 brings a bunch of useful customization tools to the iPhone lock screen. You can edit the lock screen wallpaper, add widgets, change the font used in the lock screen time display, and use the depth effect for a more unique look. 

Next, we will show you how to use these tools one by one, you can jump to what you want to make iOS screen lock settings according to your preferences.

Tip: Before upgrading to iOS 16/17, you ‘d better back up your iPhone in advance to avoid data loss due to various unexpected issues.

How to create a new iPhone lock screen

First, let's see how to create a brand-new custom lock screen in iOS 16. Follow the steps below:

Step 1. Unlock your iPhone with Face ID or Touch ID > long press on the Lock Screen.

Step 2. Tap the plus icon in the bottom right corner, or swipe from right to left to tap Add New.

Step 3. Select a new wallpaper from the options' menu that include People, Photos, Photo Shuffle, Emoji, Weather, Astronomy, Favorites, and Colors. 

The basic set up is complete. Now, let's see how to customize iPhone lock screen.

Step 1. Tap on the Clock, select the desired style and color, tap on the cross icon. (Here, you can choose a font style for the time, and even choose a color.)

Step 2. Click on the plus icon below the Clock > you can choose the widgets you want to add to your lock screen > simply tap the widget you want to add > tap on Done.

✍ Note: Since the widget area is limited, you can only add up to four small (1×1) widgets, or two (2×1) widgets or one (2×1) widget, and two (1×1) widgets at a time.

Tips:
● You can tap on the date displayed at the top of the lock screen to add one extra widget up there as well.
● You can swipe between all the lock screens you created, just select the one you want to switch between lock screens.

How to change iOS 16/17 lock screen wallpaper

If you want to change the wallpaper on your lock screen, you can do the same without designing a whole new wallpaper. In addition to photos, iOS 16 will also have a gallery based on Apple's collections for use as live wallpapers such as weather wallpapers to see real-time weather conditions that change throughout the day or an astronomy wallpaper for views of the Earth, moon, and the solar system.

NOTE: Starting with iOS 16 Developer Beta 1, you can only change the wallpaper in the lock screen using a custom image from the gallery. If you're using an Apple-provided wallpaper, you won't be able to change it without creating a new lock screen.

Steps to change the iOS 16 lock screen wallpaper:

Step 1. Unlock your iPhone > press and hold on the lock screen > tap on Customise.

Step 2. Click the Image icon in the lower left corner > choose a different photo.

Note: If you're using an Emoji or Color lock screen, you'll see an Emoji or change background color icon instead of an Image icon.

How to create multiple wallpapers on the iOS 16 lock screen

If you want to a fresh wallpaper on your iPhone from time to time, just need to select multiple images as your wallpaper.

Step 1. Tap the Photo Shuffle in step 1 of the above steps.

Step 2. You can select categories, or tap on Select Photos Manually to choose the images you want to shuffle and click Add.

Step 3. Tap on the three dot icon on the bottom right, choose Shuffle Frequency. You can choose your desired frequency. And then tap on Done to set your new lock screen.

How to use a portrait wallpaper for depth effects

When you use a portrait photo as your wallpaper, you can enable or disable the depth effect, which will partially hide the clock behind the portrait image, giving your lock screen the effect of a 3D wallpaper. Please follow the steps given below:

Step 1. Unlock and long press your iPhone as in the first step, click the plus icon.

Step 2. Choose a portrait photo from your gallery or from Apple’s options.

Step 3. If you want to disable this effect, tap the three-dot button and click Disable Depth Effect.

How to change iOS 16 lock screen widgets

If the widgets you choose when making your lock screen don't meet your expectations, you can change them very easily. Tap Customise to enter the widget area, you can click the minus icon on the widgets to remove any widget you want to delete. Then you can choose a new widget to add to your lock screen.

How to link lock screen with Focus Mode

With iOS 16, you can make sure the lock screen on your iPhone fits in the Focus mode you're in. For example, you can use a lock screen with playful wallpapers and an activity widget during personal time, and a lock screen with a calendar widget and a more work-friendly wallpaper during office hours.

Refer to the following steps to set up it:

Step 1. Unlock your iPhone > long press on the lock screen to enter the editing mode > tap on Focus.

Step 2. You can now associate the lock screen with whatever focus mode you like. You can even create multiple lock screens for multiple use cases and switch between them easily.

How to delete lock screen

You may have spent hours creating various lock screens for your iPhone, but sometimes what if you create some that you are not very happy with? Fortunately, you can also remove the lock screen very easily.

Just unlock and long press your iPhone to enter the editing mode > find the lock screen you want to delete > long press on > click Delete Wallpaper. Then, the lock screen will be deleted.

Backup iPhone before updating 

Now you have known how to cumize your iPhone in iOS 16. Can't wait to updating your iOS version to iOS 16? But you should know that there is some chance of iOS updating failure. To protect your data from any accident. We do suggest you to have a backup. Especially for some old iPhone modes. 

To make things easy, you can turn to a professional iPhone data backup software - AOMEI FoneBackup. It was designed by an experienced team. It provides 2 backup ways to protect your data.

► Selective Backup: You can selectively backup your iPhone photos, videos, contacts, messages, music, etc.

► Full Backup: Backup your entire data on your iPhone.

Now you can download and install this software, we will show you how to use this tool.

Step 1. On the AOMEI FoneBackup, click "Phone Backup". Here you can choose "Selective Backup" or "Full Backup". Here we choose "Full Backup" as an example.

Step 2. You can encrypt the backup if you need. Then click "Backup Storage Path" to choose a location to save the data. Click "Start Backup" button.

Conclusion

That's all there is to the iOS 16 lock screen. iOS 16 will bring a personalized lock screen with multiple layers of effects, widgets, wallpapers, live events and notifications. Starting with multi-layered effects, you can use photos as wallpapers and set the photo theme in front of the lock screen time to create a sense of depth.

At the moment, iOS 16 is currently in developer beta. So you can install the beta version and follow the instructions above to customize your iPhone ahead of time for new fun. If you have some issues installing iOS 16, you can refer to this guide: 6 Fixes to An Error Occurred Installing iOS 17/iPadOS 17.

Most importantly, methods in this post can also be applied to the newest iOS 17/18.