how-to-add-apple-home-widgets-to-your-lock-screen-in-ios-16

How to Add Apple Home Widgets to Your Lock Screen In iOS 16

How to Preorder the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro Reading How to Add Apple Home Widgets to Your Lock Screen In iOS 16 5 minutes Next How to Improve Your Android’s Battery Life
  • Apple Home widgets provide quick information about the status of your home
  • With iOS 16, Apple users can now add Apple Home app widgets to their Lock Screens
  • Besides adding widgets to your iPhone Lock Screen, you can also customize them as you like

When Apple unveiled iOS 16, it also released the all-new Home app for its smart home platform: HomeKit. With the help of these Home widgets, you can see a skimmable version of the status of your home. It allows you to see the temperature and humidity inside the house, how many lights are on, if your door is locked, and if your alarm system is armed.

Thanks to the new Lock Screen widgets feature, now you can add a shortcut to the Home app directly on your iPhone’s Lock Screen.

You can add up to four Home widgets to your Lock Screen, and they will be visible below the clock on the lower shelf. You can choose from two widget sizes: single and double. However, these aren’t interactive, which means by adding widgets to your Lock Screen, you can only see the status of your home. These widgets don’t allow you to turn off your lights or lock your door directly; instead, you’ll be taken to the Home app by tapping on a widget.

How to Add Apple Home App Widgets to Your Lock Screen

iOS 16 allows you to add widgets to your Lock Screen. You can check the air quality, temperature, upcoming calendar events, or battery level with the help of these widgets. Having the Home app widgets on your Lock Screen helps you get information at a glance.

Here’s how you can add Apple Home App widgets to your Lock Screen:

  • Long press the Lock Screen and tap Customize
  • Tap the lower shelf below the Clock to get the Add Widgets box
  • Scroll down and select the Home app icon
  • Scroll left to check the available widgets
  • Select the widget you want to add to the Lock Screen
  • Click Done in the top right corner

The widget you select will appear below the clock on your Lock Screen. If you want to reposition it, you can press and drag it to your desired location. You can also remove a widget by pressing the minus arrow at the top left corner.

How to Customize Your Apple Home Widgets

If you have an iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, or an older iPhone model compatible with iOS 16, you can enjoy a customizable Lock Screen, including the widgets.

You can choose from the six Home app widget options available. Of these six, two single widgets can be customized, but the four double widgets are not customizable. You can add up to two double widgets and four single widgets or two single widgets and one double widget. Moreover, you can add single widgets more than once, and they will display different devices.

Single Home App Widgets

Apple users can display two single widgets on their Lock Screen showing the specific status of one Security sensor and one Climate sensor. You can customize them both to show a particular sensor or security system/door lock.

Here’s how you can customize the Climate sensor widget:

  • Add the Climate sensor to your Lock Screen widget shelf and tap it
  • Choose one from the dialogue box that appears with these options: Temperature, Air Quality, Smoke Sensor, Humidity, or Carbon Monoxide Sensor
  • Whichever options you choose will be displayed on your Lock Screen

Here’s how you can customize the Security sensor widget:

  • Add the Security Accessory to the widget shelf on your Lock Screen and tap it
  • You’ll see a dialogue box open with all the available alarm systems and door locks
  • Choose the ones you want to display

Double Home App Widgets

You can choose to display up to two double widgets on your Lock Screen, and they cannot be customized like single widgets.

Double widgets include the following:

Summary

You can add a summary widget to your iPhone Lock Screen. It will give you a quick summary of your smart home. The summary usually includes information like the number of lights that are on, the status of a door lock or security system, and the temperature recorded by a sensor or a thermostat.

Climate

By adding climate widgets to your Lock Screen, you can get a quick summary of the sensor measuring climate. You’ll be able to see a temperature range, humidity, indoor air quality, and other related information.

Security

You can also add the security widget to your Lock Screen in iOS 16. It will show you a summary of your home security sensors, including alarm systems, doors, and any unresponsive sensors.

Lights

The Lock Screen widgets for lights let you see how many lights are on and how many are unresponsive.

Final Thoughts

Apple introduced widget options to display on your Lock Screen with the iOS 16 update. At this moment, the Apple Home app lock screen widgets are not as advanced as the Control Center Home tiles. With a tap, these tiles give you better control of your device, but Apple widgets are easier to access. They’re not the most advanced feature from Apple at this moment, but we’re hopeful Apple will add more functionality to these widgets, making them more accessible and quick to control your smart home.

Leave a comment

All comments are moderated before being published.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.