How to change the lockscreen style on your iPhone

Apple is gradually catching up with Android when it comes to customizing your phone’s lockscreen. If you want to take advantage of those improvements, here’s how to change the lockscreen style on your iPhone, including your wallpaper, clock, and widgets.

How to change the lockscreen on your iPhone

The instructions below apply to iOS 16 or later. If you’re still running iOS 15 or earlier, you’ll need to update iOS — and if your iPhone isn’t compatible with iOS 16 or 17, it’s probably time for a model upgrade or switching to Android.

Changing wallpaper

There’s more info in our wallpaper guide, but here’s the basic process.

• Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
• Tap Wallpaper, then Add New Wallpaper. To customize existing wallpaper, tap one of the appropriate Customize buttons in the carousel. Swipe through the carousel to switch between alternate wallpapers (if they already exist).
• Choose from one of the available categories, such as Photos, Photo Shuffle, Emoji, Weather, Pride, or Astronomy.
• Depending on the category, you’ll be asked to pick images or otherwise customize your wallpaper.
• When everything looks right, tap Add.
• You should see two options in a pop-up: Set as Wallpaper Pair and Customize Home Screen. The former duplicates your lockscreen image on your homescreen, at which point you’re finished. The latter lets you pick a separate image and/or apply blurring.
• If you chose Customize Home Screen, tap Done once you’ve made your edits.

Changing clock style

For this section and the next, we’ll assume you’re customizing an existing wallpaper/lockscreen. If you need extra details, check out our iPhone clock font guide.

• Wake your iPhone, then tap and hold on an “empty” part of the lockscreen (i.e. no text or icons).
• Swipe to select the appropriate wallpaper, then tap Customize.
• Select Lock Screen.
• Tap on the clock.
• Choose from one of the available fonts.
• To change color, use the palette tools at the bottom of the screen. If you swipe all the way to the right side of the palette, you can often access a custom color picker, depending on the wallpaper type. Note that you can’t set separate colors for your clock versus widgets and the date.
• Tap X to close the font panel.
• Tap Done to finish customization.

Adding or removing widgets

Lockscreen widgets were arguably long overdue by the time they arrived in iOS 16. They’re immensely useful, particularly if they save you the trouble of unlocking your phone and opening an app for a relatively simple piece of info. Learn more in our dedicated lockscreen widgets article.

• Wake your iPhone, then tap and hold on an “empty” part of the lockscreen (i.e. no text or icons).
• Swipe to select the appropriate wallpaper, then tap Customize.
• Select Lock Screen.
• Tap on the tray below the clock.
• From the Add Widgets pop-up, tap or drag suggested widgets into place.
• Alternately, scroll down and select an app with available widgets, then tap or drag one of those. If more than one widget type is available, swipe through to see your options.
• If necessary, rearrange widgets by dragging them around the tray. Remove a widget by tapping its minus icon.
• Once you’ve got widgets where you want them, close the Add Widgets window and tap Done.