Everything You Can Do With a Locked IPhone

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You can’t take someone else’s iPhone and use it as your own: authentication measures like Face ID, Touch ID, and passcodes ensure that the only people who can access our iPhones are us and people we trust. However, even if you can’t check someone’s messages or open their Instagram without unlocking the phone first, there are a surprising number of things you can do. Here is the complete list.

Some of these options will depend on certain security settings enabled on the iPhone in question. If someone has disabled access to one of these options on the lock screen, it won’t work for you. If you want to make some changes after reading what your iPhone allows people to use while locked, scroll to the bottom of this part. I’ll also note the options you can disable on the lock screen along the way.

You can use the camera

You probably know that there are several ways to quickly access the camera from the lock screen, whether it’s via the shortcut in the bottom right corner, swiping left on the screen, or using the Control Center tile. However, none of these options are locked when the iPhone is locked, meaning that anyone can access your iPhone camera at any time. They can take photos, record videos, basically any photo mode options you would normally find in the Camera app.

However, there’s not much you can do with a photo or video when taking a locked iPhone: you can tap on the thumbnail of an image after it’s snapped to see all the photos and videos you’ve taken during that session, but only those images. You can also swipe up to view additional information about a photo or video, such as camera and location information, and add to favorites and delete images, but other options such as visual search , sharing, and editing are locked.

You can use a flashlight

This is another obvious tip, but one worth mentioning: You can use the flashlight on your iPhone without first unlocking it. You can use the flashlight shortcut at the bottom left corner of the lock screen, or use the Control Center tile (long press to select brightness). The next time you need to light up a room, grab an iPhone, any iPhone.

You can access the “Today” view

Today View (a set of widgets accessed by swiping right on the lock screen) may not be as much used as Apple would like, but it’s full of information even by default. You can access it without unlocking your iPhone, which means you can view innocuous things like news headlines, weather reports, and stock information, in addition to more personal information like a person’s recent music activity, photos, and data. calendar.

However, not all widgets will be available without unlocking the iPhone. For example, the Screen Time widget will be completely empty until you first authenticate. You can disable this option on the lock screen.

You can use search

You can swipe down on the lock screen to find anything, whether your iPhone is unlocked or not. Although iOS will disable you if you try to open web links or apps, you can still access Siri Knowledge pages from Wikipedia or a dictionary. You can also access phone numbers for shops and other establishments, which we will return to shortly. To give Apple some privacy support, contacts won’t show up here, so you won’t be able to use search to find out more about the iPhone owner’s friends and family.

You can disable this option on the lock screen.

You can access the wallet

If the wallet is enabled on the lock screen, anyone can access it by double-clicking the side or home button, or from the Control Center tile. However, your credit cards will still require authentication, so traditional Apple Pay won’t work. What will work are NFC payments, such as at a subway terminal, and any gift and reward cards you have in Wallet that use a QR code. The wallet can be disabled on the lock screen.

You can access the Home controls

If the iPhone in question is connected to smart devices through the Home app, you can control those devices while the iPhone is locked. However, this setting can be turned off.

You can use Siri

By default, Siri is available when your iPhone is locked. This is quite handy as sometimes you can’t look at your iPhone when you want to ask the digital assistant a question. However, this means that anyone can hold down the side button or the home button to ask Siri to do something. Note. You can disable Siri on the lock screen.

While many tasks aren’t available without a passcode, Face ID, or Touch ID, there are actions that Siri can perform on your behalf. Many of these are simple uses you would expect from Siri, such as answering questions or setting timers. But others are a bit surprising. Here’s a couple:

You can call on the phone

With Siri, you can call anyone as long as you know the phone number. You can also ask to call contacts saved on iPhone if you know their name, as well as to call from numbers you found using the search. You can also answer default calls from their lock screen notifications, but this setting can also be turned off.

Yes, that means you can also make FaceTime calls using a locked iPhone.

You can write to anyone

This is a little disturbing. In addition to making phone calls, Siri can send messages to people on your behalf while the iPhone is locked. If you know the contact’s name, great. If not, you can choose the phone number you have in mind. Think twice before you leave your iPhone at the table for dinner with “friends”.

You can pull up routes through Apple Maps

Ask Siri for directions on a locked iPhone and the assistant will display those directions on Apple Maps for you, no matter who you are. I think this is good advice if you ever get lost and stumble upon an abandoned iPhone!

You can create reminders, notes and entire calendars

Again, Siri is very “helpful” when the iPhone is locked. You can ask her to create reminders for any time you want, as well as add calendar entries for any event you can think of. Siri can also dictate notes, allowing you to clutter up the Notes app of any iPhone you own.

You can access the Control Center

Accessing the Control Center from the lock screen is an important part of iPhone productivity. However, it’s also available whether your iPhone is locked or not, which means anyone can peek into your Control Center (unless you disable the option in settings).

While there are some controls here that require authentication before use, many don’t. Some of these things are pretty minor, like the ability to toggle portrait lock, and change brightness and volume. However, others are a little more disturbing. Let’s take a look at the ones below:

You can play music from the Now Playing window.

The Now Playing window in the upper right corner of the Control Center is available at any time. If you have a song or podcasts in the queue, anyone can hit the play button to play the music again. This also applies to audio output: you can press the AirPlay button to send this music to any available source. You can also take control of one of the AirPlay sources to change what is played on that speaker.

You can manage networks and communications

The window in the upper left corner of the Control Center contains all communication options such as Airplane Mode, Cellular Data, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirDrop, and Personal Hotspot. All these settings can be changed at any time.

You can turn on Do Not Disturb (or another trick)

All your focus modes , including Do Not Disturb, are always available in Control Center. Anyone can activate Focus, which means you can miss important notifications without even realizing it.

You can activate screen mirroring

This is a bit of a weird security oversight. The screen mirroring option is available at any time, meaning anyone can project your iPhone’s display to an AirPlay compatible source. While this projection is rather limited without an unlock option, it’s obvious that you can still do things on this iPhone to project to anyone who’s watching.

You can access most Control Center tiles

The rest of the Control Center features can be found using the tile controls. They are fully customizable, so they will differ from iPhone to iPhone. However, there are 19 options that can be used whether someone has authenticated themselves or not, opening up a ton of useful options for a locked iPhone. Here is a complete list of Control Center control tiles that you can access at any time:

  • Accessibility shortcuts
  • alarm clocks
  • Announce notifications (if available)
  • Apple TV remote
  • Calculator
  • Camera
  • Code Scanner
  • Dark Mode
  • Flashlight
  • House
  • Low Power Mode
  • magnifying glass
  • Notes
  • Shazam
  • Sound recognition
  • Speaker (background sounds, Live Listen, headphone placement)
  • Stopwatch
  • Text size
  • Timer

The only unavailable Control Center tiles are Screen Recording, Guided Access, and Voice Memos, three options that should definitely not be available to anyone. However, the same can be said about other options, such as alarms. I don’t want people to have access to my alarms without my permission: a malicious friend can turn off an important alarm without my knowledge, or worse, set an alarm for something terrible like 3am.

You can turn off your iPhone

If you can’t access a locked iPhone, you can definitely turn it off . On most iPhone models these days, hold the volume up and side button together until the “slide to power off” option appears.

You can access your medical records

Using the same button gesture, you can access a person’s medical ID and, thank God, too. This option allows you to see important medical information for the owner of the iPhone in case he cannot provide it to you.

You can access SOS emergency assistance

In the event of an emergency, you can use this same button gesture to access the Emergency SOS feature, which will allow you to contact the authorities from your iPhone. However, you should also be able to ask Siri to dial 911 (for obvious reasons, I can’t test this).

You can access USB accessories

This setting is actually disabled by default, so it most likely won’t work. However, if not, you can use USB accessories on a locked iPhone. These days, that most likely means connecting your iPhone to your computer or using CarPlay via USB.

Everything you can turn off on your iPhone’s lock screen

So you’re thinking to yourself, “You know, I don’t like that people can use Siri to send messages to my friends” or “I feel uncomfortable when someone has access to my Starbucks loyalty card all the time.” There are settings to solve these problems. While you can’t lock the lock screen like you can in Fort Knox, you can close some of the biggest security holes.

Go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode (or Touch ID & Passcode), then scroll down to ALLOW ACCESS WHEN LOCKED. All items here can be disabled, so they won’t be available until you unlock your iPhone. They include:

  • Today Browsing and Searching
  • Notification Center
  • Control center
  • Siri
  • Reply with a message
  • Home control
  • Wallet
  • Answer missed calls
  • USB accessories

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