You can display the sound control slider in the Now Playing area of your iPhone or iPad Lock Screen to change the volume without pressing physical buttons or accessing Control Center.
iOS 16 brought a redesigned Lock Screen but removed the media volume slider in the Now Playing widget. It irked many people, who complained about it on Reddit.
If you find the change inconvenient, you’ll be happy to know that iOS 18.2/iPadOS 18.2 and later versions bring this feature back. However, it doesn’t “just work” as it did before; you must enable it manually.
Show the Lock Screen volume slider
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad and tap Accessibility.
- Tap Audio and Visual under the Hearing heading.
- Turn on the Always Show Volume Control switch to enable the feature.
“Show volume controls on the lock screen for headphones and the built-in speaker,” reads the feature’s description. The volume slider appears above the scrubber in the Now Playing control on the Lock Screen, right below the playback controls.
Also, check out: How to limit the max volume of iPhone or iPad speaker