How To: Your iPhone's Clock App Is Getting a Big New Feature in a Future iOS Update

When iOS 17 first came out, the iPhone's Clock app received a giant new feature, one that lets you set multiple timers and keep track of them on the Lock Screen, in the Notification Center, and in the Dynamic Island. A future iOS 17 software update may give us something just as exciting for the stopwatch.

In an early iOS 17.4 beta build, Apple previewed what Live Activities for Clock's stopwatch tool would look like. Unfortunately, the Live Activity disappeared from future iOS 17.4 beta builds and didn't show up in the stable iOS 17.4 release on March 5. But we expect it to appear again in a later iOS software update.

When it becomes available, you would just open Clock, tap "Stopwatch" in the tab bar, and hit "Start" to begin the clock. You could also start the stopwatch by asking Siri or choosing the option from the Home Screen quick actions after pressing or tapping and holding Clock's icon.

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You can view the stopwatch's Live Activity from your Lock Screen or Notification Center as the time elapses. It also is visible in the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, and iPhone 15 and 15 Plus.

Like in the Clock app, you can pause the stopwatch and record laps. After pausing, you can stop and exit the stopwatch and Live Activity. This works from the Lock Screen, Notification Center, and expanded Dynamic Island (press or tap and hold the Dynamic Island to see the controls). If you want to see the analog interface, you can swipe to it in the Clock app, but it won't appear as such in the Live Activity.

While Clock's timer feature has been compatible with Live Activities since Live Activities' introduction on iOS 16.1, there was no way to view the stopwatch outside of the Clock app. Including Live Activities support reduces the chance of accidentally activating the stopwatch and forgetting about it. It also lets you use other apps without having to go back to Clock every time you want to interact with the stopwatch.