iPhone: The Missing Manual, 13th Edition

Chapter 2. 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 information about your life. 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 side button, to consult the Lock screen’s time and date display, and then shove the phone right back into your pocket. It goes back to sleep after a few seconds.

Better yet, the Lock screen gives you a handy status report. 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.

Lock Screen Swipes

The Lock screen is the centerpiece of two other important screens. You can swipe left or right to bring them into view.

• Swipe left to open the Camera app (“The Camera App”).

• Swipe right to reveal the Today (Widgets) screen (“Making DNDWD Mandatory”).

Actually, there two more screens you can reach from the Lock screen:

• The Control Center. You reach it by swiping up from the bottom of the screen (home-button phones), or down from the right ear (Face ID phones); see “Control Center”.

• The Notification Center. Get here by swiping up—but this time from the middle of the screen; see “The Notification Center”.