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Here's how to easily customize your iPhone lock screen

Cody Godwin   | Paste BN
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Phones have become like extensions of ourselves. Our phone cases can match our mood or our outfit. Our apps are as organized as our homes (or sometimes more organized), and many of us spend far too long picking the perfect picture for our background.

Apple’s iOS16 update addressed our background needs by taking lock screen customization even further, expanding the number of lock screen backgrounds you can have and their appearance. 

How to customize lock screen
To customize your lock screen: 

  • Unlock your phone but do not open it
  • Hard press on the background 
  • Tap the plus sign 
  • Choose between suggested backgrounds or choose your own

Try zooming in on the background image if it features a person or a pet. When you reach a certain point, the top of the image will appear in front of the clock.

Only so much of the clock can be blocked, so the image will drop behind the clock again if you zoom in too much. This depth mode feature only works on iPhone SE or newer.

Swiping left and right on your background photo will flip through different photo styles you can add to your picture. 

Tapping on the clock lets you change the font face and color. 

You can also add widgets above and below the clock that display weather, reminders, alarms and more.   

Once you're satisfied with your new lock screen, tap "add" in the upper right corner.

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Changing backgrounds

You can create many customized lock screens to fit many moods, seasons or needs. 

Apple has not specified how many lock screens the phone allows, but one Reddit user claims the limit is 200. 

To change between lock screens: 

  • Unlock your phone but do not open it
  • Hard press on the background 
  • Swipe between options
  • Tap the one you want

If you want to delete a lock screen, hard press on the unlocked background and find the background you want to delete. Then, swipe up and press the trash can icon. 

Automatically change lock screens

Customized backgrounds can be connected to focus modes and will automatically change when the focus mode is turned on. 

To connect a background to a focus mode:

  • Unlock your phone but do not open it
  • Hard press on the background 
  • Find the background you want to use
  • Tap "focus" near the bottom of the custom background
  • Select which focus mode you want to connect it to 

You can also customize focus modes and create new ones to best suit your needs.

More problems, solved:

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