15 Best Lock Screen Widgets for Apple iPhone

Apple introduced lock screen widgets for iPhone with the iOS 16 update. Widgets help you glance at essential information without unlocking your phone to launch an app. Besides Apple’s collection, several third-party app developers have also pushed out lock screen widgets on iPhone. Let’s check some of the best lock screen widgets on iPhone.

Widgets are a part of lock screen customization on iOS 16. Although they are not as useful as big home screen widgets to check app info, lock screen widgets still add a neat touch to the lock screen view updates.

How to Add Lock Screen Widgets on iPhone

Before we go through the list, let us show you how to find and place an app widget on the lock screen.

Step 1: Long-tap on your iPhone lock screen.

Step 2: Select Customize at the bottom.

Step 3: Select your lock screen and tap the widgets area below the clock to open the app widgets menu.

Step 4: Select an app and check the widgets on offer. Tap on a widget to add it below the clock on the lock screen.

1. Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger needs no introduction. You can add the Messenger widget on the lock screen and check all your unread chats without unlocking the phone.

Download Messenger for iPhone

2. Google Drive

Google Drive is the first major cloud storage platform to adopt lock screen widgets on iPhone. The company offers three widgets to choose from – Suggested files, Search, and Starred. The latter two are small, while the Suggested files widget takes half the space on the lock screen.

Download Google Drive for iPhone

3. Snapchat

To everyone’s surprise, Snapchat rolled out the support for lock screen widgets with iOS 16 release. Using its dedicated widget, you can open the Snapchat Camera or pin a friend or group from the iPhone lock screen.

Download Snapchat for iPhone

4. Google Chrome

Google Chrome is one of the best Safari alternatives on the iPhone. If you prefer Google Chrome, you will surely appreciate the new lock screen widgets. You can add a search, incognito search, voice search, and Chrome Dino game widget on the lock screen. Unfortunately, a widget to access Chrome bookmarks is missing from the list.

Download Google Chrome for iPhone

5. Things 3

Thing 3 is our preferred task management app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. You can add a List widget to check your daily tasks, a New To-Do shortcut to add a task quickly, and track your day’s progress from the lock screen.

Download Things 3 for iPhone

6. Fantastical Calendar

Although Fantastical Calendar went with a subscription route, it remains the top choice for many to juggle through a busy day. You can add an Up Next widget, check the monthly view, and a quick action widget to compose an upcoming meeting.

Download Fantastical for iPhone

7. RainViewer

The default Weather widgets are basic at best. Meet a third-party weather app called RainViewer that offers up to fifteen (yes, you read that right) widgets on the lock screen. You can check the real-time weather radar, hourly forecast, weather alerts, air quality index, and any weather info on the iPhone lock screen.

Download Rainviewer for iPhone

8. Soor

Soor is a neat third-party music player that works well with Apple Music. The developer offers a single music collection widget to check your favorite playlists and top songs and get release alerts at a glance.

Download Soor for iPhone

9. Apollo

Apollo – a popular third-party Reddit app, has the best implementation of lock screen widgets on iPhones. There are a total of nine widgets to select from. You can add trending posts, random subreddit, most recent posts, comments, Reddit Inbox, and more on the lock screen.

Download Apollo for iPhone

10. Daily Dictionary

You can improve your vocabulary knowledge with Daily Dictionary app. You get to use ‘Word of the Day’ widget to show the current word of the day and its definition on your iPhone lock screen.

Download Daily Dictionary for iPhone

11. Launcher

Launcher 5 takes some time to get used to, but after you set your preference from the app, you can open any app, send a Tweet, compose an email, and even run a Siri shortcut from the lock screen.

Download Launcher for iPhone

12. Triplt

Triplt makes it convenient to plan your next summer vacation. You can check your flight status, hotel reservations, and more from the lock screen. You can even glance over your gate number, departure date, etc. Flighty is another such app to check live travel details on your iPhone.

Download Triplt for iPhone

13. Scanner Live

Do you use your iPhone to scan documents frequently? Scanner Live’s couple of lock screen widgets allows you to access the document scanner with a single tap.

Download Scanner Live for iPhone

14. Overcast

Overcast is a popular podcast app on iPhone. The developer offers three widgets on the lock screen. You can check your recent podcasts, add an app icon to launch it quickly, and a playlist widget to jump to your favorite podcasts on the move.

Download Overcast for iPhone

15. Fitness

The default Fitness app’s Activity widget allows you to check your movement throughout the day on the lock screen.

Lock Screen Widgets Are Super Useful on iPhone

While big names like Microsoft, Spotify, Adobe, and others are missing from the list, the initial lock screen widgets from other developers are impressive. You can always create multiple lock screens to accommodate more widgets. Which widgets do you use on your iPhone? Share them in the comments below.