How to Use Live Activities on iPhone (iOS 16)
Live Activities provide a handy way to get at-a-glance information and features from compatible apps on your lock screen. With them, there’s no need to unlock your iPhone or go into apps themselves.
To use Live Activities, you need to be running iOS 16 and up. As noted, on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, Live Activities also take advantage of the space offered by the Dynamic Island.
To enable live activities on an iPhone, follow these steps:
Tap Settings. Tap Face ID & Passcode. Enter your passcode. In the Allow Access when Locked section, move the Live Activities slider to on/green.
Which Live Activities are available in your apps, and how you activate them, differs based on which apps you use. You can clear a Live Activity from your lock screen by swiping from right to left on it.
What Are Live Activities?
Live Activities are a small view into an app that can be added to your iPhone lock screen and provides regularly updated information from that app. They allow an app to surface crucial information that you’ll want at a glance: a sports score, where your food delivery is on its way to you, weather information, and more.
As their name suggests, Live Activities are updated regularly and let you get important information with just a glance at your screen (great with the iPhone 14’s always-on screen) and without opening an app.
Think of them as being like lock screen widgets or notifications that update in close to real-time and that you can interact with.
Live Activities on iPhone 14 Pro and Up
On the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, Live Activities also take advantage of the Dynamic Island to provide updates while you use other apps, not just from the lock screen. On these models, information appears in the Dynamic Island in a collapsed form at all times. Sometimes, the Dynamic Island expands to show something particularly important, and you can tap the Dynamic Island to jump into that app.
For example, when listening to a song in Music, the Dynamic Island shows a thumbnail of the album art for the song you’re listening to and a tap takes you to the album in Music. In another example, a sports game that you’re following shows the team logos and the current score in the Dynamic Island. When the game ends, the Dynamic Island expands to show the final.
Apps That Support Live Activities
As of this writing, there are a few dozen, or maybe a couple hundred, apps that support Live Activities. Given that number, there’s no way to list them all here, but a search in the App Store for “live activities” or “dynamic island” will turn up some good options.
Apps that comes pre-installed on the iPhone that support Live Activities, updates in the Dynamic Island, or both, include:
Clock (for timers)MapsMusicTVVoice Memos.
