Updated
How to Put Text on the iPhone Lock Screen
With Any Text
- Open Any Text, tap “Widget 1”, and write your text, like a goal, a note, or a short list.
- Lock the iPhone, touch and hold the Lock Screen, and tap “Customize”.
- Tap “Add Widgets” (or the row of widgets, when it already has widgets), choose Any Text, and tap the widget of “Widget 1” in the size you want.
- Tap “Done”.
The small widgets go in the row of widgets, which is below the clock or at the bottom of the Lock Screen, and the one-line widget goes above the clock. iOS shows the date in front of the one-line widget, and uses its own font for it.
When you change the text in the app, the widget changes too. Any Text has 20 widgets, each with its own text and style, and you can make parts of the text bold or italic with Markdown.
Tips
- To show the text on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, tap the title at the top of the text in the app, and choose “Show as Live Activity”. iOS shows a Live Activity for up to 12 hours on the Lock Screen.
- To change the text at a time of day, use the action of Any Text in a Shortcuts automation.
- The same widgets work on the Home Screen, on Apple Watch, and on the desktop of a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later. The text syncs with iCloud.
Get Any Text
Put text on your Lock Screen, Home Screen, and desktop
$4, one-time purchase for all platforms
- Platforms
- macOS, iOS, watchOS, visionOS
- Requires
- macOS 26 or later, iOS 26 or later, watchOS 26 or later, visionOS 26 or later
- Category
- Utilities
- Released
- September 2022
- Privacy
- No data collected
- Developer
- Sindre Sorhus
Without an app
The Reminders widget can show text that you write: write each line as a reminder in a list, add the Reminders widget to the Lock Screen like in the steps above, and choose the list in the options of the widget. The widget shows only the titles of the first reminders of the list, and you cannot change how they look, so it is good for a short list, but not for a longer note or a text with its own style.
You can also put the text in the wallpaper: write the text on a photo with Markup in the Photos app, and choose the photo as the wallpaper of the Lock Screen. The text is then part of the photo, so you must make a new wallpaper to change it, and the clock and the notifications can cover it.