Did you know that there is a nightstand mode on iPhone now? There is now a feature called StandBy mode on the iPhone, which allows you to see information—such as the time, your calendar, photos, and weather—at a glance while charging your device. In this tip, we'll show you how to use the iPhone's StandBy mode and how to get a red clock and calendar on iPhone.

Why You’ll Love This Tip:

Easily check the time when you wake up in the middle of the night.
Snooze or turn off alarms with ease each morning.

How to Use the iPhone's StandBy Mode

System Requirements

This tip works on iPhones running iOS 17 or later. Find out how to update to the latest version of iOS.

What is StandBy on iPhone? StandBy on iPhone is similar to a feature called Nightstand mode on the Apple Watch, which turns your Apple Watch into a digital clock when it rests on your nightstand. Now, if you turn your iPhone sideways (into landscape orientation) while it’s charging, you’ll be greeted by an iPhone clock display, called StandBy. It should be turned on by default, but if it's not, here’s how to turn on StandBy mode and customize it:

Open the Settings app, and tap StandBy.
You can tap the toggle next to StandBy to enable or disable the feature.
You can also enable Night Mode, which changes the colors of StandBy to display in red when your iPhone detects low ambient lighting. This is to make it easier to view your display in the dark, if, for example, you wake up in the middle of the night and check your phone for the time. If you are wondering why your iPhone has a red clock and calendar, this is why!
You can also choose whether or not to Show Notifications when in StandBy mode.
If you want to hide notification previews, you can enable Show Preview on Tap Only.
On Pro Model iPhones, instead of the Night Mode toggle, you will have an option called Display.
This takes you to a new menu with options for how your iPhone screen behaves in StandBy mode, including the Night Mode toggle seen in step 3. The Automatically setting means your screen will be off when your device is not in use and the room is dark. After 20 Seconds simply turns off the display after 20 seconds. Never will keep the display turned on indefinitely.
Motion to Wake is a setting that will automatically wake your iPhone when in StandBy mode if it detects motion.
With StandBy mode enabled, simply begin charging your phone and then turn it sideways. StandBy should activate automatically.
When StandBy is active, you have a few different options. You can swipe left and right to choose between three different StandBy displays.
On the first display, you can swipe up and down on the right and left widget stacks to switch between the available widgets.
Tap and hold either of the widget stacks to bring up some customization options for that particular stack.
Swipe up or down on the widget stack to swipe through the available widgets, or tap the minus icon to remove one.
Tap the plus icon to add a widget to the stack.
Tap Smart Rotation to turn it on or off. Smart Rotation allows your iPhone to dynamically switch between which widgets it thinks are most relevant to you.
Tap Widget Suggestions to get suggestions about which widgets to use.
When you swipe left to switch to the second display, you will see a slideshow of your photos. Note: The Photos StandBy mode requires the iPhone to be unlocked to view them.
You can swipe up or down to view different photo albums.
Tap and hold the display to bring up some customization options.
You can tap the eye icon to hide or unhide a particular album when this StandBy mode is active.
You can tap the plus icon to add any of your other photo albums.
When you swipe left again to view the third and final display, you will see a digital clock.
You can swipe up and down to choose between different styles of digital clocks.
Tap and hold the display to bring up customization options.
Tap the gray circle to customize the color of the clock.
When your alarm or a timer goes off, you will see an enlarged display with buttons for snoozing, repeating, or turning off the alarm/timer.
If you're listening to music or a podcast, you'll see album art and controls for pausing, playing, and skipping back and forth.
When you get texts, they'll pop up as well.

That's how to make your iPhone a night clock! With only three display options and requiring the device to be unlocked to view photos, I feel like StandBy is not very intuitive, but it has potential. If you don't have an Apple Watch to use to check the time in the middle of the night or control your alarms in the morning, this is a great alternative. I have a MagSafe stand so its easy to simply place my iPhone on it horizontally when I'm going to bed.