Changing the Look of Your iPhone

You can personalize your device with your favorite wallpaper (the background picture on your Lock Screen and Home Screen). You can also set your device to dim automatically when your environment is dark and reduce the amount of emitted blue light at night before you go to bed.

Personalizing your Lock Screen

You can add widgets to give you relevant information at a glance, add filters to photo backgrounds, and change the font of the date and time. You can set up more than one Lock Screen and associate it with a Focus. Switch to that Lock Screen and your Focus will start automatically.

1. Touch and hold an empty space on the Lock Screen to enter edit mode.
   
2. Tap in the bottom right. The Lock Screen wallpaper gallery appears.
   

Dynamic wallpaper

Apple offers two dynamic wallpapers, Astronomy and Weather. These wallpapers change depending on real-world circumstances.

For example, if you choose Astronomy, you can swipe right or left to choose to show Earth close or from afar, the Moon close or from afar, or the whole Solar System. If you choose Earth, the globe is centered on your location and correctly shows the angle of sunlight. The sunlight angle is also correctly displayed on the Moon. Solar System shows the correct position of planets relative to Earth.

If you choose Weather, animations will play for sunlight, rain, snow, and other weather events.

Other types of wallpaper

If dynamic wallpapers aren’t your thing, Apple offers dozens of patterns and color options, and you can still set any photo from your camera as a wallpaper.

If you choose a photo as your wallpaper:

• Swipe right and left to apply a filter, if available.
• If you choose a photo with a plain background, your iPhone may be able to apply a depth effect. Depth effect means that the photo’s subject will be in front of the time display, as long as it’s not too tall. Tap and tap Depth Effect. You can’t use widgets with depth effect.
  
  This wallpaper is an offering from Apple. Notice that the leaves slightly protrude onto the time display.
• Use a pinch to zoom in or out, and drag the photo to move it within the frame.

Clock font and color

Change the font and color of the time displayed by tapping the box containing it, then choosing different options.

Widgets

Next, and only if you are not using a depth effect, tap Add Widgets, then tap the widgets you want to add. Remember that only four slots are available, and some widgets take up two slots. Tap to remove a widget. Tap on the Add Widgets card when you are done.

Once you are satisfied with your wallpaper and widgets, tap Add in the upper right, then choose whether to apply the wallpaper to both the Lock Screen and Home Screen or to choose a different wallpaper for the Home Screen.

Link a focus to your Lock Screen

You can link a Focus to a Lock Screen. Switching to that Lock Screen starts the Focus.

1. Touch and hold an empty space on the Lock Screen to enter edit mode.
2. Swipe left or right to find the Lock Screen you wish to link to a Focus.
3. Tap Focus near the bottom of the screen.
4. Tap the Focus mode you want to turn on when you switch to this Lock Screen.

Switch between Lock Screens

1. Touch and hold an empty space on the Lock Screen to enter edit mode.
2. Swipe left or right to the desired Lock Screen, then tap it.

Deleting a Lock Screen

Oddly enough, you cannot change the wallpaper once you have created a Lock Screen; you can only change widgets, the linked Focus mode, and the wallpaper’s filter. If you don’t want to see the wallpaper anymore, you will have to delete the Lock Screen:

1. Touch and hold an empty space on the Lock Screen to enter edit mode.
2. Swipe up on a Lock Screen, then tap the trash icon.

Controlling your locked Lock Screen

You can enable some features and widgets to your Lock Screen, making it easier to access and respond to messages without having to unlock your device.

1. Go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode (Touch ID & Passcode on a device with a Home button).
2. In the section labeled “ALLOW ACCESS WHEN LOCKED,” choose from the options provided, including:
   • Enabling Today View allows you to swipe right from the Lock Screen to access the widgets you have set there. This can be handy for checking the weather, calendar, news, and more, depending on your options for the Today View.
   • Enabling the Control Center gives you quick access to Do Not Disturb, Airplane Mode, and other handy controls.
   • Reply with Message lets you quickly respond to messages without unlocking your device.

Activating Dark Appearance

You can now choose a dark theme for your device. Dark Appearance darkens the backgrounds of many screens, reducing eye strain. As a bonus, a darker screen will extend battery life.

1. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness.
2. In the Appearance section, select Dark.
3. Toggle on Automatic if you want to use light mode during a set period, for instance, from sun up to sun down. You can set your own schedule by tapping Options.

You can add a button to the Control Center to switch between light and dark modes. If you don’t see the dark mode icon in the Control Center, go to Settings > Control Center and tap Dark Mode. Note that starting Dark Mode from the Control Center will only turn it on until the following sunrise.