Schlage® Encode Widgets and Lock Screen Controls on iPhone

What the official app provides on iOS

Within the Schlage® Home app you get lock state, remote lock and unlock on Wi-Fi models, access code management and activity history. Outside the app, the official surface is thin: notifications, and on the Encode deadbolt and Encode lever an Apple Watch app that offers lock, unlock and status.

There is no first-party Home Screen widget, no Lock Screen control and no Control Center control from Schlage's own app. [VERIFY: re-check on each app release; this is the kind of thing that can change without an announcement.]

If your lock is in Apple Home, you already have widgets

Encode Plus (BE499) and Sense (BE479, with the Wi-Fi Adapter for remote access) join Apple Home. That unlocks Apple's own surfaces rather than Schlage's: the Home widget on the Home Screen, a Lock Screen control, a Control Center control, and the accessory tile in the Home app itself.

Practically this is better than anything a vendor app tends to build, because it is native, instant and consistent with the rest of your accessories. Unlock still requires authentication, which is correct behaviour for a door lock.

Encode BE488/BE489 cannot be added to Apple Home at all, so none of this applies to it. That single limitation shapes the whole iOS story for the most popular Schlage model.

The Encode's options, ranked honestly

• Apple Watch: the official Watch app covers the Encode deadbolt and lever with lock, unlock and status. If you wear a Watch this is the fastest official route.
• Home Assistant: the Schlage cloud API integration exposes the lock as an entity, polling state roughly every 30 seconds. From there you can build anything, at the cost of running a home server.
• A third-party iPhone app that talks to the same cloud account and provides widgets and Shortcuts — including ours.
• Accept the app. For a household that unlocks by keypad and uses the app monthly, this is a perfectly rational answer.

How to add the Home widget on a supported model

Long-press an empty area of the Home Screen, tap the plus button, choose Home, and pick the widget size that shows a single accessory or a group. Select your lock. For the Lock Screen, long-press the Lock Screen, tap Customise, and add a Home control to the control slots.

In iOS 18 and later you can also place a Home control in Control Center and assign it to the Action button on iPhone models that have one.

What a widget can and cannot do safely

Lock is a one-tap operation. Unlock requires device authentication regardless of which app provides the control, because an unauthenticated unlock control on a Lock Screen would be a serious security defect. Any app promising a one-tap unlock from a locked phone is describing something you should not want.

Battery level and last-changed status are read-only and are the most genuinely useful things to keep on a Home Screen.