What to know

  • iOS 18 lets you change the default flashlight and camera toggles on your iPhone’s lock screen.
  • You can select from several shortcuts, set any app as a lock screen toggle, and even remove them entirely from your iPhone’s lock screen.
  • Change the lock screen toggles on your iPhone by long pressing the lock screen, then select Customize > Lock screen > remove current shortcuts > and select new ones.
  • FYI, you can even lock or hide apps on iPhone with the iOS 18 update.

The torch and camera shortcuts on the iPhone’s lock screen are older than time itself. Even though the flashlight comes in handy, the camera toggle is just redundant, especially considering that you can swipe right on the lock screen and open the camera that way anyway. And with iPhone 16, there’s even a dedicated button for the camera now.

Whether you’re bored of these toggles or think there are better options to replace them with, iOS 18 lets you change these to your liking. And if you want to keep a clean lock screen, they can be removed just as easily as well. 

Change Lock Screen Toggles on your iPhone

  1. Long press on the lock screen and select Customize. Then select Lock Screen.
  2. Here, tap on the – next to the lock screen toggles to remove them. Once removed, tap on the + icon.
  3. You’ll find several dozen options that you can set on the Lock Screen. Tap on the one that you want to add.
  4. Once added, tap on Done. And just like that, you would have changed the Lock Screen toggles.
  5. You can configure different toggles on different Lock Screens to go along with different profiles.

Note: If you remove the toggles without adding new ones, the toggles will be removed entirely from the Lock Screen. A handy setting for a cleaner aesthetic.  

Set apps on the Lock Screen on your iPhone

Apart from the general toggle options, you can also set any app on your iPhone’s Lock Screen. This is possible thanks to the ‘Open App’ shortcut. Here’s how to set any app as a shortcut on the Lock Screen:

  1. Repeat the first two steps given above to open Lock Screen customization.
  2. On the Control selection page, select Open App. Then tap on Choose to select an app.
  3. Select an app. Then tap anywhere on the screen to close.
  4. Finally, tap Done in the top right corner to confirm. And just like that, you’ll have your selected app as one of the Lock Screen toggles.

This level of customization is great to see on any device, not just the iPhone. After all, which quick conveniences you get on your device’s lock screen should be your decision to make.   

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