New iPhone iOS 16.1 Lock Screen Feature Gives You Over-The-Air Updates From Your Favorite Apps

Apple first announced Live Activities, a lock screen notification for your iPhone that gives you real-time information, like sports scores and flight status, during its global developer conference This year. The feature didn’t debut with the public release of iOS 16 in September, but it’s finally here, thanks to iOS 16.1.

And if you’re wondering what Live Activities are all about, we’ve got you covered.

In this story, we’ll dive deeper into what the lock screen feature does, how it works, which third-party apps support it, and whether you should disable it. Here’s everything you need to know about live activities.

To learn more about iOS 16.1, see new and improved on iOS 16.1. And if you haven’t updated yet, here is how to download and install iOS 16.1 on your iPhone.

What is Live Activities for iOS 16.1?

Live Activities is one of the few major lock screen changes in iOS 16.1, giving users a real-time preview of their favorite apps, whether they want to know the Lakers game score, for example, or see where their Uber is. is actually. The notification sits at the bottom of your lock screen and only appears when the information you need is operational.

Although presented as a lock screen notification, Live Activities also lives in the new dynamic island on your home screen, but that assumes you have an iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max.

How do live activities work?

Live activity notifications automatically appear on your lock screen, but only when there’s relevant real-time information to show you. However, each app works differently with the new feature.

For example, if you track a flight through Flighty, the live activity notification only appears on your lock screen for the duration of the flight.

If you’re using Slopes to track your skiing or snowboarding performance, live activity displays while you’re tracking your performance in the background.

And for Uber (Not currently available)the lock screen notification will appear from the moment you order a ride and close when you arrive at your destination.

What apps currently work with Live Activities?

Uber and other major third-party apps will eventually support live activities, but for now the number of apps is limited. Current apps that work with Live Activities include:

Although most of the apps are free, some require you to pay a subscription/in-app fee to be able to work with live activities.

You can check out more apps on this Reddit thread.

What if I don’t want live activities?

Not everyone will be a fan of live activities as they may not be interested in constantly following certain information. Or maybe your battery is low and you want to disable the feature because Live Activities cause third-party apps to constantly refresh in the background. Whatever the reason, there is an easy way to turn off live activities.

The easiest way to stop Live Activities is to go to the notification on your lock screen and press Switch off. The Live Activities notification will disappear from your lock screen and dynamic island and permanently disable Live Activities for the associated app.

If the live activity notification does not have the Switch off option, you can also go to the Settings app, find the app you want to disable live activities for, and turn off Live Activities.

And finally, you can go to the third-party app itself and find a button or setting that will stop Live Activities from working, but this will vary from app to app.

If you want to know more about iOS 16, check out 7 hidden features we were surprised to find in iOS 16 and 4 Annoying iOS 16 Features (You Can Fix).