Access features from the iPad Lock Screen

The Lock Screen, which shows the current time and date and your most recent notifications, appears when you first turn on or wake iPad. From the Lock Screen, you can see notifications, open Camera and Control Center, get information from your favorite apps at a glance, and more.

You can personalize your Lock Screen by choosing a wallpaper, showcasing a favorite photo, changing the font of the time, adding widgets, and more. See Create a custom iPad Lock Screen.

👁 The iPad Lock Screen showing the time and date.

Access features and information from the Lock Screen

You can quickly access the features and information you need most from the Lock Screen, even while iPad is locked.

Open Camera: Swipe left. (See Take photos with your iPad camera.)
Open Control Center: Swipe down from the top-right corner. (See Use and customize Control Center on iPad.)
See earlier notifications: Swipe up from the center. (See View and respond to notifications on iPad.)
View more widgets: Swipe right. (See Add, edit, and remove widgets on iPad.) You can interact with widgets on the Lock Screen and the Home Screen to perform tasks—for example, tap an item in the Reminders widget to check it off, or tap the Play button in the Podcasts widget to play an episode.
Start drawing and taking notes: (on supported models) Tap Apple Pencil on the Lock Screen. Whatever you create is saved in Notes.
Control media playback: Use the playback controls (Now Playing) on the Lock Screen to play, pause, rewind, or fast-forward media playing on your iPad. (See View and control Live Activities on the Lock Screen.)

To choose what you can access from the Lock Screen, see Turn on Lock Screen features on iPad.

Show notification previews on the Lock Screen

Go to Settings 👁 Image
> Notifications.
Tap Show Previews, then tap Always.

Notification previews include text from Messages, lines from Mail messages, and details about Calendar invitations. See View and respond to notifications on iPad.

View and control Live Activities on the Lock Screen

You can view an app’s Live Activities on your Lock Screen, so you can easily follow their progress. Examples include directions from Maps, live sports updates from the Apple TV app, order updates from food delivery apps, and more.

When you play music, a movie, or other media on iPad, you can control these Live Activities using the playback controls on your Lock Screen to play, pause, rewind, and fast-forward. You can also control media playback on a remote device (such as your Apple TV 4K or HomePod) from the iPad Lock Screen.

To change your Live Activity settings, go to Settings 👁 Image
, tap Apps, tap the app with the settings you want to change, then tap Live Activities.

Note: Not all apps have a Live Activities setting.

Monitor background tasks

On iPad, you can start an extended background task (for example, downloading a file from Safari) and then switch to another task while it finishes. Background tasks can continue to run in the background until they’re completed while you’re doing something else.

Ongoing background tasks appear as Live Activities on your Home Screen and Lock Screen so you know they’re running and can monitor their progress.

URL: https://support.apple.com/guide/ipad/access-features-from-the-lock-screen-ipadce941aa4/ipados