How to Personalize Your iPhone Home Screen with Widgets and Icons

The iPhone home screen is more customizable than ever. Adding and resizing widgets or changing the appearance of app icons is easy, and you can go even further with custom widgets and icons with a few tweaks.

Basic Home Screen Customization

The iPhone home screen is what you see when you unlock your device, it’s where your app shortcuts appear. You can swipe left and right to access different home screens, and swipe all the way to the right to see the app library.

Removing an app from your home screen doesn’t remove it from your device. To remove an app, tap and hold its icon until the context menu appears, then tap Remove app, then tap Remove from Home screen.

To add an app to your Home screen, find it in your App Library, long-press the icon, then choose Add to Home Screen from the pop-up menu that appears.

You can even remove entire home screens to hide app pages (which you can enable later). To do this, long-press an empty part of the Home screen, then tap the Home screen index indicator at the bottom of the screen (it looks like several dots).

From here you can check and uncheck the home screens to turn them off or on. This is great for quickly trying out a minimalist home screen experience without destroying your entire layout. To have even more control over your iPhone, learn how to lock and hide apps.

Add widgets to your home screen

Widgets allow you to interact with or glean information from apps without having to open them. This lets you do things like see the weather conditions or check items off a to-do list, right from your home screen. There are two ways to add widgets to your iPhone’s home screen.

The easiest is to tap and hold on an empty space until your apps start to shake, then tap Edit in the upper left corner of the screen, then tap Add Widget. This will reveal the widget gallery, where you can search, browse suggested widgets, and scroll down to select widgets by app.

Once you’ve chosen a widget, swipe left and right to see different sizes and configurations, then tap Add Widget to place it on your current home screen. Widgets, like app icons, can be implemented.

You can also move your widgets between home screens by tapping and dragging, then holding the screen edge and waiting. To remove a widget, tap and hold it, then choose Remove Widget.

It is also possible to convert app icons into widgets. To do this, find the app icon, then tap and hold it until the context menu appears. You should see a selection of up to four views: icon, compact, medium, and large. Tap these options to convert the icon to a widget and vice-versa.

Resize and customize your widgets

Long press on a widget to display the context menu, then use the different size selectors to select different widget styles. You can also long-press an empty part of the Home screen until everything starts moving, then grab the bottom right corner of the widget and drag it to expand and contract it.

You can use a similar trick in Control Center to make the controls larger and smaller.

Choose Edit Widget from the context menu to see the widget options. What you see here will depend on what the widget is capable of. For example, a Weather widget should let you choose a specific location, a Reminders widget should let you choose a list, and a Photos widget should let you specify an album.

Stack widgets on top of each other

You can create a widget stack by dragging and dropping widgets of the same size on top of each other. You can then navigate between them by sliding your finger up and down. This can be a very convenient way to save space on your home screen, while still having access to different apps and information.

Once you stack one widget on top of another, it will automatically turn into a stack. From there, long-press the widget and choose Edit Stack to see new options.

Change the order in which your widgets appear by tapping and dragging. Add new ones using the + plus icon in the upper left corner.

In addition to that, turn off Smart Rotate if you don’t want the order of your stack to change based on what your phone deems most appropriate (like switching to the Music widget when you’re in the gym). You should also turn off widget suggestions if you don’t want random widgets to appear in your stack.

Change the appearance of your app icons

Since iOS 18, you can change the appearance of app icons. To do this, long-press an empty space on your Home screen, then tap Edit in the upper left corner and choose Personalize.

Use the menu that appears to change the size and choose between light mode, dark mode and tinted icons.

Place app icons wherever you want

Also new for iOS 18, you can finally place your application icons where you want them. This means you can create a home screen with an app in each corner, leave blank spaces to better appreciate your wallpaper, or go for a minimalist look.

Tap and hold an icon or widget, then hold it until everything starts moving. Now drag the icons and widgets into place.

Create custom icons with shortcuts

It’s a bit of a hack, but if you want to give an app icon a completely custom look, you can do so with a workaround using the Shortcuts app. The first step is to find the icon you want to use (I recommend putting it in iCloud Drive so it’s easy to access).

Open the shortcuts (you can download them from the App store if you don’t have it) and tap the + plus icon to create a new shortcut. Search for open and add the Open App action to your workflow. Tap Application and choose the app you want to associate with a custom icon.

Now tap the drop-down arrow at the top of the screen, then tap Add to Home Screen and a new menu will appear. Type the name you want to see, then choose the Image icon on the left and use Choose Photo or Choose File to find your image.

When you’re ready, tap Add in the upper right corner of the screen. You can now remove the shortcut since this just creates a simple bookmark that points to a pre-installed app.

I tried this with transparent JPEG and PNG images, and in both cases there was a white outline around my icon.

Also create your own widgets

If you want a widget that can display or do something in particular, the best place to start is to find an app that fits your needs. Your best alternative is to try creating it yourself.

If your current selection of app widgets isn’t doing it for you, you can always create your own. Apps like Widgy And Widgetsmith allow you to create custom widgets that can display all sorts of information, but much of what they offer is hidden behind a premium membership.

These apps include discovery tabs for adding widgets created by other users to your home screen. There are many similar apps in the App Store, although these two are great places to start.

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There are even more ways to change the appearance of your iPhone. Why not try automatically scroll your iOS wallpaper with a little help from the Shortcuts app?