Can someone read messages on my locked iPhone? I left my iPhone in a taxi cab. I locked the phone to make sure nobody finds it and makes expensive calls. But does locking the phone prevent someone from seeing the texts I am sending? What if the battery dies? After the phone is recharged, will the texts I send still be readable if the phone is locked?
Your sending a lock doesn't change the settings you had on the phone prior to losing it.

If messages were showing on the screen - they will still show.

If not, they will not.



If you have find my phone enabled and are concerned about changing this, you could send a remote erase (and then lose all ability to track it again) and have it resort to the default behavior. I'm hesitant to erase my phone now to test, but am fairly certain the default is towards privacy and further messages would not be displayed on the lock screen when the phone reboots or is powered on again.