iOS 18: How to Change Your iPhone's Lock Screen Controls - CNET

Tired of accidentally turning on your flashlight? You can fix that now.

Apple released iOS 18 to the general public in September, a week after the company announced its new iPhone 16 lineup, Apple Watch Series 10 and more at its "Glowtime" event. The update brought many new features to your iPhone, including upgrades to Messages and more ways to customize your home screen. It also lets you change or remove the flashlight and camera controls on your lock screen.

This is a feature I've wanted for a while, and Android devices got a similar feature in 2023. The option to change and remove your lock screen functions is a great way to make your iPhone fit your needs, and I'm sure it will help stop people from accidentally turning on their flashlight.

Read more: iOS 18 Brings These New Features to Your iPhone

Here's how you can make your lock screen more useful for you.

1. Open Settings.2. Tap Wallpaper.3. Tap Customize under your lock screen.

This will pull up your lock screen with familiar outlines around editable items, including the flashlight and camera controls at the bottom of your screen. You can get rid of them by tapping the minus (-) sign next to them. After removing either or both controls, tap Done in the top right corner of your screen.

These are just a few of the controls you can place on your lock screen.

If you want to add new controls, once you've removed the flashlight and camera, tap the plus (+) sign that appears after removing the control to pull up the Control menu. This menu shows you all the controls you can add to the lock screen, including Translate and Quick Note.

There is also a control available called Open App. This allows you to choose any app on your iPhone and open it right from your lock screen, even if it's not a listed control. You still have to unlock your iPhone to access the app, but it makes it easy to open your favorite apps without getting distracted by others.

Once you select Open App, tap Choose in the new menu and it will show you all your apps. Choose any app -- even games like Hello Kitty Island Adventure -- then tap outside of the menu and tap Done.

I was serious when I said I have Hello Kitty Island Adventure on my lock screen.

Now when you lock your iPhone, you'll see either no controls on your lock screen or controls that you use more often. Now you might randomly open Hello Kitty -- oh no, guess I've got to bake a strawberry shortcake for all my friends.

For more on iOS 18, here's my iOS 18 review, what to know about RCS messaging on iPhone and our iOS 18 cheat sheet. You can also check out what could be coming to your iPhone with iOS 18.1.