How to Enable Live Activities on iPhone
Apple's new Live Activities feature for iPhone Lock Screens and iPhone 14 Pro models with Dynamic Island is available with the release of iOS 16.1. Read on to find out what it does and how to turn it on.
What Are Live Activities?
Live Activities are notifications that stay on your screen and let you interact with them. They are always up to date, so you can see what's going on in real time right from the Lock Screen. For example, if you're watching a sports game, you can see the latest score on the Lock Screen. If you're waiting for an Uber, you can watch for your driver to get closer.
Live Activities also work with the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. During a Premier League game, for instance, the Dynamic Island shows a live-updating scoreboard on either side of the True Depth camera pill that shows how many goals each team has scored. When you press the Dynamic Island for a long time, it expands to show how much time has passed and what's going on in the game.
Instead, the score is shown in a widget on the Lock Screen when the iPhone 14 Pro is locked. Live Activities are only available on the Lock Screen on the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, and all other iPhone models that don't have the Dynamic Island.
How to Enable Live Activities
Follow these steps to turn on Live Activities for the Lock Screen on an iPhone with iOS 16.1 or later.
- Launch the Settings app.
- Scroll down and tap Face ID & Passcode.
- Enter your passcode to continue.
- Scroll down and under "Allow Access When Locked," toggle the switch next to Live Activities to the green ON position.
Apps That Support Live Activities
Apple has given developers access to a Live Activities API, and several third-party apps in the App Store already use this feature.
Users in the U.S. and Canada can also check out Apple's TV app support by opening the TV app and tapping the Follow button on a supported sports game. Then, your Lock Screen and/or Dynamic Island should show your Live Activity scores.
Live Activities in the TV app are available for MLB games for users in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the U.K., Brazil, Mexico, Japan, and South Korea. NBA and Premier League games are only available for users in the U.S. and Canada. In the future, this feature is likely to be added to other sports leagues as well.
