Understand Galaxy S22 Lock Screen

The Galaxy S22 Lock Screen is an essential part when using Galaxy S22 phones.

This Galaxy S22 how-to guide explains what Galaxy S22 Lock Screen is, the meaning and usage of all entities on the Galaxy S22 Lock Screen, and the other two panels of the Galaxy S22 Lock Screen.

Update 1: Android 13 update (One UI 5/One UI 5.1) for Galaxy S22 has been available. There are a few updates for the lock screen. For example, you can touch and hold to edit the Lock Screen.

Update 2: Android 14 (One UI 6) update for Galaxy S22, S23, and S21 are available in most regions. With this update, you can customize the clock location on the lock screen.

Galaxy S22 Lock Screen Guide

• What is Galaxy S22 Lock Screen?
• Access Galaxy S22 Lock Screen
• Understand items on Galaxy S22 Lock Screen
  • 1. Carrier (mobile network) name
  • 2. Face recognition action icon
  • 3. Lock status
  • 4. Status icons
  • 5. Clock (and widgets)
  • 6. Contact information
  • 7. Edge screen handle
  • 8. Notifications
  • 9. Fingerprint sensor indicator
  • 10. Charging status
  • 11. Phone app shortcut
  • 12. Camera app shortcut
• Access two other panels of the Galaxy S22 Lock Screen
  • Unlock screen
  • Dynamic lock screen
• Do you have any questions about Galaxy S22 Lock Screen?

What is Galaxy S22 Lock Screen?

As discussed in this post, you should (or must) set up a screen lock to secure your Galaxy S22. And the Galaxy S22 Lock Screen is the door you need to lock.

Whenever the phone is locked, you need to unlock it through the Galaxy S22 Lock screen.

When someone is holding your Galaxy S22, they can only access the lock screen by default. If he wants to use the phone or access any data saved on the phone, then he must unlock the phone.

Of course, you will also get the identical Galaxy S22 Lock Screen before you unlock the phone. You, and only you, should have the key to the door. This is the only way to protect your data saved on the phone.

In a nutshell, Galaxy S22 Lock Screen is an essential component of the security system of the phone. It, together with the screen lock (PIN, password, pattern, smart lock), protects your phone from unauthorized access.

Please note when you take screenshots of the Galaxy S22 lock screen, some methods, e.g., Google Assistant or Bixby Voice, will ask you to unlock the phone to proceed.

Access Galaxy S22 Lock Screen

By default, when you reboot your Galaxy S22 normally, it should enter the Galaxy S22 Lock Screen directly and wait for you to unlock it. Of course, you can choose to reboot the phone into other modes (e.g., recovery mode, safe mode, or even maintenance mode).

When using Galaxy S22, you can always press the Side key once to turn off the screen, as explained here. By default, Galaxy S22 will be locked immediately. You can press the Side key again to wake up the screen and access the Galaxy S22 Lock screen.

If the Galaxy S22 screen times out, the phone will be locked automatically within 0 seconds to 30 mins, depending on your settings.

If you are using any official Galaxy S22 flip covers, e.g., Galaxy S22 LED View Cover or Galaxy S22 Smart Clear View (S View) Cover, you can open the cover to wake up and screen and access the lock screen.

Understand items on Galaxy S22 Lock Screen

There are 3 panels (just like Home screen panels) on Galaxy S22 Lock Screen: the main screen, unlock screen, and the dynamic lock screen (read on).

By default, you always land on the main screen, as shown in the screenshot below.

Normally, you can find the following 12 items:

1. Carrier/network name.
2. Face recognition action icon.
3. Lock status.
4. Status icons.
5. Clock (and widgets).
6. Contact information.
7. Edge screen handle.
8. Notifications.
9. Fingerprint sensor indicator.
10. Charging status.
11. Phone app shortcut.
12. Camera app shortcut.

We now check the meaning and usage of these 12 items.

1. Carrier (mobile network) name

On the left of the status bar, you can see the carrier’s name of the mobile network your SIM card is connecting to.

When using two SIM cards on Galaxy S22, you should notice two carrier names.

The carrier name is especially useful when your Galaxy S22 is in roaming mode. You can make sure your Galaxy S22 is connecting to the “preferred” roaming partner network. Most carriers may have several roaming patterns in a given region. The charges may be different.

2. Face recognition action icon

When you wake up the lock screen, face recognition (if enabled) will try to recognize your face. In this case, the ring flashes around the front-facing camera cutout (hole).

Because face recognition is activated for about 5 seconds to save battery, if no face is recognised within 5 seconds, the front camera will be turned off, and you have to use other unlock methods, e.g., fingerprint or PIN/password/pattern.

3. Lock status

By default, when you unlock Galaxy S22 with face recognition or smart lock,  Galaxy S22 will still keep you on the “unlocked” lock screen.

The purpose of this default behavior is to avoid accidental unlock and, therefore, inadvertent touches.

Once the Galaxy S22 is unlocked, the lock status icon will turn into an unlocked lock icon, as shown below.

If the status is unlocked, as shown above, you can swipe to access the Galaxy S22 Home screen.

For face recognition, you can choose to skip this unlocked lock screen and go directly to the Home screen, as explained in this guide (which applies to Galaxy S20, Galaxy S21, and S22).

Smart Lock may also keep Galaxy S22 unlocked if you enable it. You can set it in the Lock screen settings.

4. Status icons

Status icons are shown normally on Galaxy S22 Lock Screen.

You may check this guide on the meaning of Galaxy S22 status icons.

5. Clock (and widgets)

Clock (and roaming clock) is always shown on the Galaxy S22 Lock Screen for you to check the time without unlocking the phone.

The clock also offers access to the lock screen widgets on Galaxy S22.

You can tap (a single tap is enough) the clock to see all lock screen widgets. Please check this guide on how to use and customise lock screen widgets on Galaxy S22.

The clock style can be customised in Settings — Lock screen —Clock style.

If you have updated your Galaxy S22 to Android 13 (One UI 5.0 or One UI 5.1), you can directly tap and hold to customize the lock screen, including the clock and many other items.

6. Contact information

You can leave your contact info on the lock screen.  In case you lose your phone, someone holding the phone can easily reach you.

Some Galaxy S22 owners may put emergency contact info or medical conditions here in case of emergency.

Of course, you should NEVER put sensitive info here.  Such info is not protected. Anyone holding the phone can see it.

You can customise the contact info on the Galaxy S22 Lock Screen in Settings —  Lock screen — Contact info.

7. Edge screen handle

The Edge panel handle lets you quickly open the edge screen panels and launch apps quickly. This is extremely useful when the lock screen is “unlocked”, as discussed earlier, for example, when you unlock the phone with face recognition or smart lock.

If the phone is unlocked, it will ask you to unlock the phone before you can use any features on the Edge screen.

The Edge screen panel is identical to that on the Galaxy S22 Home screen.

8. Notifications

The Galaxy S22 Lock Screen does not show notification icons on the status bar.

Instead, notification icons or notifications are shown directly below the contact info.

You can choose how notifications are shown on the lock screen:

• Shown icons only.
• Show notifications with details.
• Disable notifications.

Please check this guide on how to manage and customize notifications on Galaxy S22 lock screen.

9. Fingerprint sensor indicator

Because the in-display fingerprint reader in all Galaxy S22 phones is invisible to our eyes, the fingerprint sensor indicator helps you position your fingers if you want to use your fingerprint to unlock Galaxy S22. Please read this guide to understand the limitations of using the fingerprint reader to unlock Galaxy S22.

10. Charging status

If Galaxy S22 is connected to a charger (wired or wireless), the charging status will be shown on the lock screen.

In this example, Protect Battery was enabled, and charging stopped when the battery level reached 85%.

11. Phone app shortcut

By default, there are two app shortcuts on the bottom of the Galaxy S22 Lock Screen.

On the left, you can find the shortcut for the Phone app, which can be used in two ways:

• Make emergency calls without unlocking Galaxy S22.
• Make normal calls when Galaxy S22 is unlocked by face recognition (or smart lock), and you are still on the lock screen. So, it is more efficient than navigation to the Home screen.

When Galaxy S22 is locked, only emergency calls can be made through the phone app.

You can customize this slot with other apps in Settings —  Lock screen — Shortcuts. But remember, most apps cannot be used until the phone is unlocked.

12. Camera app shortcut

By default, on the bottom right of the Galaxy S22 Lock Screen, you can find the shortcut for Galaxy S22 camera app.

You can use the camera to take photos or record videos without unlocking the phone.  You can also use Galaxy S22 camera quick launch without unlocking the phone.

However, if you use the camera app when Galaxy S22 is still locked, you can only check and manage photos taken in the current session.  You cannot check other photos or videos.

Also, you may change some of the Galaxy S22 camera settings (e.g., customize the Galaxy S22 camera modes) without unlocking the phone through this shortcut.

Access two other panels of the Galaxy S22 Lock Screen

As mentioned, there are two other panels (pages) on the Galaxy S22 Lock Screen:

• Unlock screen
• Dynamic lock screen

Unlock screen

On the main page of the lock screen, you can swipe from any of the 3 directions (downwards, upwards, or from left to right) to access the unlock screen, as shown below.

You can use the keypad/keyboard/pattern to unlock your Galaxy S22. You can choose to hide the password or PIN when typing them on the lock screen, as explained in this guide.

Dynamic lock screen

If you swipe from right to left on the Galaxy S22 lock screen, you will access the Dynamic Lock screen page, as shown in the screenshot above.

The Dynamic Lock screen offers fresh content (curated by Samsung) as your lock screen wallpapers (wallpaper services). You can choose up to 5 categories of images, and these pictures will be updated automatically roughly every 2 weeks.

You may check this guide on how to use the Dynamic lock screen on Galaxy S22, S21, S20, S10, Note 20, and Note 10.

Please note, on both unlock page and the Dynamic lock screen page, only the Back navigation button is available. If you switched to Galaxy S22 navigation gestures, then there will be no buttons.