Further expanded in iOS 17
You can personalize your iPhone’s Lock screen in many ways. In addition to being able to customize the lock screen wallpaper and add widgets to your lock screen, there’s one more thing you can change to your own taste: the date and time on your lock screen. This gives your iPhone a personal touch. From iOS 17 onwards, more is possible. We’ll show you what’s possible and how to change the time on your iPhone.
- New in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17
- Adjust time and date formatting
- Change date and time (time zone)
New from iOS 17 and iPadOS 17: thickness of the font and now also on the iPad
From iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, there are also more options for the lock screen. The good news is that editing the date and time on your Lock screen will also be available on iPad starting with iPadOS 17. All the options you know from the iPhone from iOS 16 will also be available on the larger screen of your iPad.
A second addition is that from iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 you can also adjust the font thickness of the clock. There will be a slider that allows you to determine how thick (or thin) the chosen font appears on your lock screen. This allows you to imitate the style of iOS 7 by making the font thickness as thin as possible. The font size still remains the same.
Adjust time and date formatting on iPhone and iPad
Since iOS 16, the date and time are displayed much larger on your iPhone. If you think that’s too big, then unfortunately we have bad news: you can’t adjust the text size of the font. But you can customize it a little more to your own taste by changing the font and color. Please note that this only works on iPhone with iOS 16 and newer. For the iPad you need at least iPadOS 17, which will be available to everyone later this year.
Here’s how to change the time format on the iPhone:
- Activate your iPhone’s screen and press and hold your finger on the screen. You are now in editing mode.
- Tap Customize at the bottom. If you are using an older background, you may need to add a new background first.
- Frames will now appear around the date and time. Tap the time to change it.
- Choose a font and color. There are eight fonts and numerous colors. The colors match the colors of your background and the first option is always a transparent variant.
- With iOS 17 or later, you can also adjust the font weight by moving the slider.
- For other colors you can also adjust the darkness of the color with the slider. If you want a completely different color than the suggested colors, scroll all the way to the right and tap the multi-color button for the extended color picker.
- Once you’re done, tap the cross, followed by Done.
The same color is chosen for the date as for the time. Unfortunately it is not possible to change the font of the date. You can use this app for that, which has a widget for the lock screen. You can replace the default display of the date with the display of this app.
Change date and time on iPhone and iPad
Do you want to manually change the date and time on the iPhone, not just the display but the actual time and date? Then you do it like this, on both the iPhone and iPad:
- Go to Settings > General > Date & Time.
- You can switch off the 24 hour clock here to switch to the American format. Turn off Set automatically to choose a different time zone. You can also manually adjust the date and time.
Is the switch for Set automatically gray? Then you probably have Screen Time enabled. In that case you cannot manually adjust the date and time. You must first turn off Screen Time via Settings > Screen Time > Turn Off Screen Time.
More about iOS 17
iOS 17 is the major update for the iPhone in 2023. If you want to know whether your iPhone is suitable for iOS 17, you will find the suitable models in our article. The most important improvements are the interactive widgets, a new Phone app with a new calling screen, more extensive AirDrop, a new Standby mode when your phone is horizontally connected to the charger and more. Also read our articles with the best iOS 17 features and interesting iOS 17 details and discoveries. The release date of iOS 17 is September 18, 2023. The most recent stable iOS version is iOS 17.1.1.
