Your phone’s lock screen is up for grabs

The lock screen of both your iPhone and your Android phone is undergoing a major overhaul.

The first thing you see when you take your phone out of your pocket or purse is your lock screen. Decorated with a photo of your children or a logo of your employer. Usually you can tell you have a message, but that’s about it. The big tech companies find it a waste of space, as is apparent from the iOS 16 update from Apple, but also reportedly from changes coming to Android.

Biggest update ever

On Monday, the beta version of iOS 16 was launched and for the first time it becomes really clear what that new lock screen will look like. Of course, we already got a sneak peek at the announcement of iOS 16, where Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, made it the biggest update ever. But what can be done in the end?

Well the new widgets will mainly increase the usability of the lock screen. You can already add widgets on the iPhone to the secondary screen that appears when you swipe the main lock screen to the right. Now iOS 16 adds widgets to that main lock screen.

More information

The idea is that you can see more information at a glance when you pull out that phone. For example, the temperature outside, your next appointment or activities that your Apple Watch has registered. These kinds of options have been available with Android phones for some time now, but Apple is now following the lead.

Now you can already add third-party widgets like Google Maps and Spotify to your secondary lock screen. It is not inconceivable that you will soon be able to give it a place on the main locking screen.

android

Also for the Android phone there will be more options on the lock screen. Techcrunch reports that Glance for Android is also coming soon with new options for your lock screen. They are designed in specific themes. For example, a fitness-focused lock screen that can show specific stats such as calories burned and exercise goals. A news theme could show headlines and a music version could be built around music.

So the battle for the lock screen seems to be on, both on the iPhone and your Android phone. We will soon be able to experience how user-friendly and useful it will be. That will be a fight for the App providers which widget will get the locked phone.