With iOS 16, you can now customize the lock screen on your iPhone with widgets that can provide you a quick glance at the weather, live activities, and much more depending upon your preference and requirement.

And not just one lock screen but you can create as many lock screens as you need with different widget placements on each screen. You can even link these lock screens to your Focus profiles so your lock screen widgets and wallpaper are customized for work, personal time, sleep, driving, and more. Fun, right?

Adding and Removing Widgets from the Lock Screen

The plain regular method of viewing your current wallpaper and changing it can also be used to add or remove widgets from the lock screen, or you can skip the menu hopping and change them on the fly right from the lock screen.

Whether you’re using the settings app or the lock screen itself, the only difference is in accessing the editing screen. Once you’re there, the process to add or remove the widgets is the same for both.

Accessing Lock Screen Widgets from Settings

To add or remove the widgets from the lock screen, head to the Settings app either from the home screen or from the app library.

Note: Using the Settings app, you can edit the widgets only for your current lock screen.

After that, scroll down to locate and tap on the ‘Wallpaper’ tile from the list to continue.

Then, on the next screen, tap on the lock screen tile to proceed. This will bring the lock screen editor to your screen from where you can edit all the elements, including widgets.

Accessing Lock Screen Widgets from the Lock Screen

Being able to edit your lock screen from the lock screen itself is one of the biggest changes in iOS 16.

Note: Using this method, you can edit the widgets for any of your lock screens, not just the one currently in use.

Make sure your iPhone is unlocked, i.e., only unlock it using Face ID or Touch ID but don’t go to the home screen. To access the widget editor right from the lock screen, tap and hold on the lock screen to bring up the lock screen selector.

If you’re on the home screen, swipe down from the top of the screen to open the Notification Center. Then, tap and hold the wallpaper in the notification center.

Swipe left or right to choose the lock screen for which you want to edit the widgets. After that, tap on the ‘Customize’ button present at the bottom section of the page to continue.

Editing the Widgets

Now, no matter which method you used to access the editor, the rest of the process is the same for both.

Tap on the widget bar present on the screen to bring the focus to it. This will also bring up an overlay menu to your screen.

Then, to remove any widget from the drawer, tap on the “–” (hyphen) icon on each individual widget to remove it.

Once the widget disappears from the drawer, tap on the empty space on the lock screen or tap on the close button present on the overlay window to confirm.

In case you wish to add a separate widget on the lock screen after removing the already present widgets, scroll and locate the widget you wish to add from the ‘Add widgets’ overlay window and tap on it to add it to the widget drawer.

In case there are multiple variants of the widget available, tap on the one you wish to add to the drawer or the one you have enough space for. Do note that at the time of writing this article, the widget drawer on the lock screen only supports four small widgets and two large widgets; you can also create a combination of two and have them on the screen.

To confirm, tap on the empty area of the lock screen or the close button present on the overlay window.

Now, to save the layout of the lock screen, tap on the ‘Done’ button present in the top right corner of the screen.

And voila! Your lock screen widgets are edited.

It can be tough getting the hang of new features, especially when you’re used to doing things a certain way for so long. And everyone knows that the lock screen has always been a fixed element in iOS. But using the above guide you can easily edit the widget bar and place widgets on the lock screen according to your need and preferences.