Chapter 3. The Lock Screen & Notifications

The Lock screen—the first thing you see when you wake the iPhone—is more than just a big Do Not Disturb sign. It’s a lively bulletin board for up-to-date information about your life. And, in iOS 10, it’s had a big promotion. Now it’s possible to have complete work sessions right at the Lock screen, without even fully unlocking the iPhone.

For starters, you can use the iPhone as a watch—millions of people do. Just lift the sleeping phone, or press the Sleep or Home button, to consult the Lock screen’s time and date display, and then shove the phone right back into your pocket. The iPhone relocks after a few seconds.

If you’re driving, using the Maps app to guide you, the Lock screen shows the standard GPS navigation screen. Handy, really—the less fumbling you have to do while driving, the safer you are.

Better yet, the Lock screen is a handy status screen. Here you see a record of everything that happened while you weren’t paying attention. It’s a list of missed calls, text messages received, notifications from your apps, and other essential information.

Four Swipes, You’re In

The Lock screen in iOS 10 is the centerpiece of four other important screens. You can swipe up, down, left, or right to bring them into view.

Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open the Control Center shortcuts screen (Control Center).
Swipe down from the top to view your Notification Center—a master list of missed calls, appointments, alerts, and so on (The Notification Center).
Swipe left to open the Camera app (Chapter 10).
Swipe right to reveal the Today (Widgets) screen (Miscellaneous Weirdness).

In short, keep this map in your head every time you wake your phone:

Notifications

A notification is an important status message. You get one every time a text message comes in, an alarm goes off, a calendar appointment is imminent, your battery is running low, and so on. They appear in three different places:

On your screen, while you’re working. They pop up to get your attention (below, top left).
On the Lock screen, in a scrolling list of alerts that came in while you were away (below, bottom left). (Unlocking the phone wipes them away. The next time you unlock the phone, that batch will be gone.)
On the Notifications screen. This special screen pulls down from the top of the screen like a window shade (below, right). Here’s where you can look at all the notifications that have come in recently, even ones you already saw on the Lock screen.

Meet the Notification Center screen (Notifications, right). It lists every notification you’ve recently received, in a tidy scrolling list.

You can check it out right now, whether your phone is locked or unlocked: Swipe your finger down from above the iPhone’s screen. The Notification Center pulls down like a classy window shade, listing every recent item of interest.

Here you’ll find all your apps’ notifications, as well as your missed calls, recent text messages, reminders, and upcoming calendar appointments. Scroll down, and you’ll discover that they go back about a week. It can be a very long list.

Tap one of these bubbles to open the relevant app for more details—for example, to see more information about that appointment, or to read the whole text message in context.

You can clear out the notifications from the Center like this:

Tap the next to a day’s name, and then tap Clear to remove all notifications for that day.
If you have an iPhone 6s or 7 model, hard-press the next to any day’s name to reveal the Clear All button. It erases your entire Notification Center. (There’s no Clear All function on older iPhone models.)

To close the Notification Center, just swipe it up and away from the bottom of the screen.

Customizing Notifications

You can (and should) specify which apps are allowed to junk up your notification screens. Open Settings→Notifications to see the master list, with one entry for every app that might ever want your attention. (Or just tell Siri, “Open notification settings.”)

You’ll quickly discover that every app thinks it’s important; every app wants its notifications to blast into your face when you’re working.

You, however, may not agree. You may not consider it essential to know when your kid’s Plants vs. Zombies score has changed, for example.

So: Tap an app’s name to open its individual Notifications screen (facing page—the News app, in this example). Here you’ll find settings that vary by app, but they generally run along these lines:

Allow Notifications. If you don’t want this app to make any notifications pop up at all, turn this off.
Show in Notification Center. If you turn this off, an app may still display bubbles or banners to get your attention—but those alerts won’t show up in the Notification Center itself.
Sounds. Some apps try to get your attention with a sound effect when a notification appears. Turn this off if you think your phone makes too many beeps and burbles as it is. (Some apps also let you choose which sound effect plays to get your attention. You can change the sound or choose None.)
Badge App Icon. A badge is a little red circled number (, for example). It appears right on an app’s icon to indicate how many updates are waiting for you. Turn it off if you really don’t need that reminder.
Show on Lock Screen. The Lock screen (Sleep Mode) is another place to see what’s been trying to get your attention while the phone was in your pocket: missed calls and texts, new messages and email, and so on.
The Lock screen may seem just like the Notification Center—but there are differences. For example, each time you wake the phone, whatever notifications are on the Lock screen are wiped clear. They don’t stay put, as they do in the Notification Center.
You might want a different set of apps to list their nags on the Lock screen. Maybe you want the Lock screen to show only missed calls, new text messages, and new email—but you’d like the Notification Center to be fully stocked with Twitter and Facebook updates, for example. Or maybe you’d rather not permit passing evildoers to pick up your phone and see your notifications without even having to unlock it.
That’s why you have this switch. It governs your ability to see this app’s updates on the Lock screen (and the Notification Center when you open it while at the Lock screen).

What Notifications Look Like

Notifications can appear in any of three styles—and you get to choose which you prefer, for each individual app.

On the same Settings→Notifications screen (then tap the app’s name), you can choose one of these three styles for notifications that occur while you’re using the phone:

None. If a certain app bugs you with news you really don’t care about, you can shut it up forever. Tap None.
Banners are incoming notifications that appear quietly and briefly at the top of the screen. The message holds still long enough for you to read it, but it goes away after a few seconds. Banners are a good option for things like Facebook and Twitter updates and incoming email messages.
Tip
A reminder: If you tap a banner before it disappears, you jump directly to the app that’s trying to get your attention. You can also flick a banner up off the screen if it’s in your way.
Alerts. An alert box doesn’t disappear after a couple of seconds; it stays on your screen until you tap or swipe it. You might use this option for apps whose messages are too important to miss, like alarms, flight updates, or text messages.
Tip
You can also use the Include setting to specify how much of the Notification Center this app is allowed to use up—that is, how many lines of information. Maybe you need only the most recent alert about your upcoming flight (1 Item), but you want to see a lot more of your upcoming appointments (10 Items).

Miscellaneous Weirdness

As you poke around in the Notification Center settings, you’ll discover that certain oddball apps offer some options that don’t match up with the settings you see for most apps. Don’t freak out. It’s all part of Apple’s master plan to put controls where it hopes you’ll find them.

The Today Screen (Widgets)

To the left of the main Lock screen, you’ll find a motley assortment of panels that Apple calls widgets.

Some are quick-access buttons that launch related apps, like quick-dial (or quick-text) buttons for your favorite contacts; others are info-bits that you might want to check frequently throughout the day, like your calendar, news, sports, and weather.

This entire wonderland is available before you’ve even unlocked the phone—quickly. That’s the point.

(Actually, the Today screen is available when the phone is unlocked, too. It’s always waiting to the left of the Home screens.)

Truth is, many people don’t even know the Today screen is there; even if they do, most people don’t use it. And sure enough, this feature doesn’t really be become useful until you customize it: Rearrange the widgets, remove the ones you’d never touch, and install more useful ones.

The very first time you open the Widgets screen, you see things like the Spotlight search bar (Spotlight: Global Search), Up Next, Siri App Suggestions, and News. (They’re described on these pages.) But the key to the real magic is the Edit button, which is hiding below all the widgets, several scrolls down.

The list you find here has two parts: The widgets that are currently installed, and the ones that aren’t. Delete a widget by tapping its button; add one by tapping its button. Rearrange the installed ones by dragging their handles. When you are finished, tap Done.

So what widgets are available? Here’s a rundown:

Up Next. The next couple of things on your calendar. Tap to log in and open the Calendar app, which shows you details of the event.
Siri App Suggestions. This feature is supposed to let you know when one of your apps might be useful. You can think of it as a “frequently used apps” listing, but it’s even smarter than that; the icons you see here are chosen based on the time and your location right now.
It’s based on recognition of your daily patterns: If you listen to the Podcasts app through earbuds every day before work, then plugging in your earbuds at about that time and location displays the Podcast app’s icon. If you call home as you leave work every day, the Phone app’s icon shows up at that time.
In each case, the suggested app opens when you tap its icon.
News. Headlines from the News app (Extensions).
Weather. You guessed it.
Maps Destinations. If you use Apple’s Maps app, and routinely enter the addresses of your appointments on the Calendar, here’s the payoff: a list of upcoming and predicted destinations, including your next calendar appointment and where you parked your car (Night Mode).
Calendar. Today’s agenda. Tap an appointment to unlock your phone and see its details screen.
Reminders. Your unfinished To Dos. You can mark one as done here, without having to unlock the phone and open the app. That’s a big deal.
Favorites. This is your speed-dial list. The first four people you’ve designated as Favorites appear here, for quick speed dialing.
But it’s not just about phone calls (who does that anymore)? In iOS 10, you can designate a text-message address, email address, Skype handle, or other communication addresses as Favorites (The Favorites List). Which means that, using this widget, you can insta-text your spouse or your kid, without having to open the app, access the address book, choose the person’s name, and so on. Shortcuts, baby!
Find Friends. After a moment of thought, this widget shows a map that pinpoints the location of any loved ones you’re tracking (Location Services).
Mail. A speed-dial list of the people you’ve designated as VIPs (VIPs), for quick emailing.
Maps Nearby. These icons are shortcuts for time-appropriate searches, like coffee in the morning, or nightlife after dark.
Maps Transit. If you use Maps’ public-transportation feature, this widget lets you know about delays and service interruptions.
Music. Playback controls for resuming and controlling whatever you were playing last.
Notes. You see the first couple of lines of the Notes page you most recently edited.
Photos. Thumbnails that, after you unlock the phone, open recent Memories (automated slideshows of recent time periods).
Stocks. The latest on whatever stocks you follow (Stocks).
Tips. This is the closest Apple comes to offering a manual for iOS 10.

You probably have many other widgets, too, installed by your apps. Waze, Yelp, The New York Times, NPR, Google Maps, Kindle, Evernote, Dropbox, Chrome, Amazon, and many other apps put widgets here for your quick-glancing pleasure.

Tip

Many widgets are expandable. If you see a Show More button on a widget, it means that a larger area, showing more information, is available to you. For example, expanding the Favorites widget shows icons for eight speed-dial people instead of four; expanding the Notes widget shows the three notes you’ve most recently viewed, instead of one; and so on. They remain expanded until you collapse them again.

Widgets on the Home Screen

Turns out you don’t have to swipe onto the Today screen to view a certain widget you need right now. On the iPhone 6s and 7 models, you can hard-press (Force Touch (iPhone 6s and 7)) an app’s Home-screen icon to view not just its shortcut menu, but also its widget, for quick consultation. (This pop-up panel also includes an Add Widget button, should you decide to install it on the Widgets screen.)

Locking Down the Lock Screen

Now, remember: You can enjoy any of these activities, and see any of this information, even before you’ve entered your password or used your fingerprint.

If you’d rather not have all these details show up on the Lock screen, you can turn them off. Privacy is the main reason you might want to do so—remember that the bad guys don’t need a password to view your Lock screen. They just have to tap the Sleep switch or the Home button.

If that bothers you, turn those features off individually. For example:

Control Center. To block Lock-screen access to your Control Center, open Settings→Control Center. Turn off Access on Lock Screen.
Widgets. You can eliminate the entire Today screen by turning off Settings→Touch ID & Passcode→Today. (The Today screen is still available after you’ve unlocked the phone; swipe to the right from the Home screen.)
Or, if one widget’s presence bothers you, bring up the Today screen; scroll to the bottom; tap Edit; and tap the button for the widget.
Notification screen. Similarly, you can eliminate the Notifications screen by turning off Settings→Touch ID & Passcode→Notifications view. (This, too, is still available after you’ve unlocked the phone.)
Note
This step gets rid of the Notifications screen—the window shade that appears when you drag down on the Lock screen. Notifications will still appear on the Lock screen as they come in, though. You can hide these items from your Lock screen on an app-by-app basis. To set this up, choose Settings→Notifications. Tap the app in question; scroll to the bottom, and then turn off Show on Lock Screen.
Camera. There’s no way to block access to the Camera from the Lock screen. (Well, you can open Settings→General→Restrictions and turn off Camera. That step, however, hides the Camera completely—it even disappears from the Home screen.)