5 Cool Things Your iPhone’s Lock Screen Can Do (Besides Showing Notifications)

The lock screen is a handy little part of the iPhone’s overall framework, serving as both a simple privacy screen from onlookers and providing a quick overview of any incoming notifications without having to unlock your device. However, the lock screen actually has a decent amount of additional features, if you know where to find them. With the right apps and features, you can quickly activate your camera, access widgets, and load additional features like Siri and Apple Wallet.

Learning how to use your iPhone’s lock screen features can save you the effort of unlocking your phone, not to mention generally speeding up all kinds of small tasks. Rather than going through the trouble of entering your PIN or using your Face ID, you can pay for your purchases, track your Uber ride, know the weather, and even remotely control your smart home setup with nothing more than a glance and a few clicks.

The annoying thing about taking photos with your phone is that by the time it takes you to unlock your device and open the camera app, your ideal shooting moment has probably already passed. To speed things up and take photos directly, you can access your camera app directly from the lock screen. While your iPhone’s lock screen is displayed, swipe left on the screen or press and hold the small camera icon at the bottom right of the screen for a moment. Either movement will instantly bring up the camera app, ready to be taken.

Along the same lines, if you find yourself in the dark, you can quickly turn on your iPhone’s flashlight feature without having to lower the control panel. At the bottom left of the lock screen is a small flashlight icon that turns on the light when you long-press it for a moment. Technically, you can turn on your iPhone’s flashlight without touching it, but that would require some setup first. The Lock Screen button is a nice alternative if you haven’t been able to do it yet.

Smartphones like iPhones have started to replace traditional physical wallets as easily accessible payment sources through apps like Apple Wallet. Of course, Apple Wallet wouldn’t be very convenient if you had to manually open the app every time you wanted to pay for something, but luckily you can access your Apple Wallet payments on the lock screen.

Assuming you have the Apple Wallet app on your iPhone with a payment method already loaded, you can double-tap the side or home button while the lock screen is on to display it immediately. If this feature isn’t already enabled, you can enable it in your Wallet and Apple Pay settings. The app will default to your selected primary payment method, after which you can tap it on a reader to pay for your purchases as usual, although you’ll still need to authenticate with FaceID or TouchID. Once it has been called, you can also scroll down to view anything you have stored in your Apple Wallet, such as travel tickets or loyalty cards.

Here’s an annoying scenario: Let’s say you’re waiting outside for an Uber to pick you up and you had to keep unlocking your phone to see how far away they are. It’s annoying and unwieldy, but with iPhone’s Live Activities feature, you don’t need to unlock your device to get this update. You can get exactly the information you’re looking for from a passive display on your lock screen.

Live Activities is a general feature on your iPhone that allows compatible apps to display passive commands or updates on your lock screen. Any app that supports Live Activities will have the feature enabled by default, displaying its respective window on your lock screen while the app is running. You can get live activity updates from your Maps app and sports updates from Apple TV, for example. Live Activities also lets you control things like music and movies, providing pause and skip track options on your lock screen, next to the name of the currently playing song/video. Many Apple-branded apps support Live Activities, as well as some third-party apps. Besides the aforementioned Uber driver progress, you can also get live activity updates from apps like Facebook and Doordash.

Sometimes a small window with text is not enough to provide you with the information or functionality you want from your relevant iPhone apps. Even though your lock screen can’t show the full scope of a particular app, it can still give you a little more information than a simple notification window, thanks to widgets. You can place up to four widgets below the time display on your lock screen to quickly check your most important apps and get information relevant to your day.

By long-pressing your lock screen, you can access the Customize menu and select the available widgets you want to display. There are all sorts of widgets available, both included by default with your iPhone or available for free from the Apple App Store. For example, using widgets, you can quickly check the current weather and temperature in your city, receive reminders of your schedule and events, and quickly see how many new emails you have received. There are more sophisticated iPhone widgets that can really help you get more done, such as the Otter Quick Voice Recorder or the MultiTimer for setting multiple timers at once.

If there’s a particular feature you’d like to be able to use on your iPhone’s lock screen that’s not immediately visible, chances are Siri can enable it for you. Luckily, you can call upon Siri’s services from the lock screen, either by pressing the side button or simply by saying the command “Hey Siri.” However, you will need to enable the Listen to Hey Siri feature in the Siri & Search section of your settings. If Siri is enabled, it will be responsive to other inputs even when the lock screen is displayed.

With the help of Siri, you can perform all kinds of functions from the lock screen, including making calls, setting reminders, or reading messages. Interestingly, you can also use Siri as a liaison for other apps that otherwise wouldn’t have lock screen functionality. For example, Siri can be used to control features of the Apple Home app, such as locking doors equipped with a smart lock or turning smart lights on and off.