How to put a Bible verse on your iPhone Lock Screen

Which one you want

The steps below use Dailies, because that is the app this site is about. The wallpaper route works with a picture of a verse from anywhere, and the widget steps are the standard iOS ones.

1. A verse on your Lock Screen

This is the one most people mean: a short verse sitting under the clock, different from the last time you looked.

First tell the app you want scripture, then add the widget.

1. Install Dailies and open it. When it asks Which of these are you here for?, choose Faith, along with anything else you like.
2. Once you are in, go to Personalize → Topics. Under Faith, follow Scripture for today.
3. Wake your iPhone and touch and hold the Lock Screen. You may be asked to unlock first.
4. Tap Customize, then tap Lock Screen.
5. Tap the empty box under the time, pick Dailies from the list, and tap Done.

The widget shows whatever your feed is made of. If you would like verses and nothing else, make Scripture for today the only topic you follow. If you would like them mixed in with other things, follow it alongside the rest. The Faith section has other topics too, such as Grace when you fall short and Prayer that keeps you steady, which bring in verses alongside other writers of faith.

iOS gives a Lock Screen widget one small box and draws it in a single tone, the same way it draws the battery and the alarm. So Dailies puts short verses there, the ones that fit the box whole, rather than a long passage cut off halfway. Tap the widget to open the app on that verse.

2. A verse on your Home Screen

The Home Screen widget is the bigger, warmer version: the verse in color, on the background and typeface you chose, with arrows to step to the next verse, a heart to keep one, and a button to share it. The large size has room for the longer passages the Lock Screen has to leave out.

1. Touch and hold an empty part of your Home Screen until the icons jiggle.
2. Tap Edit, then Add Widget. On older versions of iOS this is a + in the top corner.
3. Search for Dailies and choose it.
4. Swipe to the medium or large size, then tap Add Widget and Done.

It follows the same topics as the Lock Screen widget, so with Scripture for today followed, it shows verses too. Moving, stacking and the fixes for a missing widget are in how to add a widget to your Home Screen.

3. A verse as your wallpaper

If there is one verse you want in front of you all week, make it the picture itself. It will not change until you change it, which is exactly the point.

1. In Dailies, press and hold the verse to bring up the share options. It goes as a card, in the background you are reading it on.
2. Choose Save image. The picture lands in your photo library.
3. Open Settings → Wallpaper → Add New Wallpaper, or touch and hold the Lock Screen and tap +.
4. Pick Photos and choose the verse you just saved.
5. Pinch and drag so the words sit clear of the clock, then tap Add.

He who keeps you will not slumber.

Psalm 121:3

Take that last step slowly. The clock sits high and centered, and a verse centered in the picture will land underneath it.

Any picture of a verse works the same way, whether it came from Dailies, from your church, or from a photo you took of a page. And because iOS keeps more than one Lock Screen, you can save a few and swipe between them as the weeks change.

4. A verse as a notification

A widget waits for you to look. A notification comes and finds you, in the middle of a meeting or a school run, and that is often when a verse does the most.

With Scripture for today followed, the verses come through notifications too. Set how many you want and when under Personalize → Daily dose: how many a day, the earliest and latest hours, and which days of the week. One a day is a perfectly good way to use it.

Dailies spreads them through the hours you chose rather than sending one at the same minute every day. A verse at 7:00 sharp every morning soon becomes an alarm you swipe away; one that turns up at an ordinary moment in the afternoon still gets read.

Which Bible it uses

The verses in Dailies come from the World English Bible, a modern English translation in the public domain. It reads like today's English rather than the King James, so you will see you where the older translations have thou. Each verse carries its reference, such as Psalm 121:3, so you can look it up in the translation you read at home.

If your iPhone is set to Spanish, Dailies uses the Reina-Valera 1909.

When it is not working

The widget is not showing verses

The widget follows your topics. Check Personalize → Topics and make sure Scripture for today is followed. If you follow several topics, verses will come up among the others rather than every time.

The widget is stuck on the same verse

Usually iOS saving battery. Turn off Low Power Mode, open the app once, and if it is still stuck, remove the widget and add it back. There is a longer list in why your iPhone widget is not updating.

Dailies is not in the widget list

Open the app at least once after installing it. iOS only offers an app's widgets after the app has run. If it is still missing, restart your iPhone.

The verses stopped arriving as notifications

Check Settings → Dailies → Notifications, then any Focus you use, since Sleep and Do Not Disturb silence apps that are not on their list. The help page has the full checklist.

Questions

Keep reading

• How to put quotes on your iPhone Lock Screen
• How to add a widget to your Home Screen
• How to link a Lock Screen to a Focus on iPhone