How to Customize your iPhone Home Screen on iOS 14?.
IOS 14 brought the most noticeable change that is a hot topic on the Internet right now – home screen customization. IPhone screens have looked the same since iOS 7, and with the addition of Home screen widgets in iOS 14, it completely changed the look of your iPhone. If you’ve been wondering how to personalize your home screen, then you’ve come to the right place. Let’s personalize the iPhone home screen.
Before we start
There are four main elements on the iPhone home screen that you can customize; app icons, icon layout, widgets and wallpapers. I would describe the steps for each of the elements mentioned to keep the tutorial easy to understand.
1. Change the background
Well, this is pretty obvious, and you may already know how to change the wallpaper on your iPhone, but I added this just to be careful. You can set any wallpaper in the settings according to your icons and widgets.
Go to the Settings app, tap Wallpaper and choose a new wallpaper.
Adjust the wallpaper in the preview section and turn off the perspective scale by clicking the button below. This will be critical if you want to change the app icon layout later.
2. Change the application icons
While the ability to change the app icons on your iPhone was introduced with iOS 12, it gained massive popularity with iOS 14. You can replace an existing icon with your own icon to launch an app from the home screen. There are several ways to do this, but the easiest is to use the Shortcuts app on your iPhone. It is preinstalled and works flawlessly.
To change the app icon, open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone and click the + button in the upper right corner. Now click the Add Action button to open the list of actions.
Be sure to read: 14 top iOS tips and tricks to get the most out of your iPhone
Enter “open application” in the search bar. Select the action called “Open Application”. Click Select under Script Action and select the application you want.
For the demonstration, I chose the Photos app. Click the meatball menu button (.) in the upper right corner.
Here you can give the shortcut a name and change the application icon that appears on the home screen. Click “Add to Home Screen” and proceed to set the name and icon of the Home Screen.
From here, you can select any image from the Photos or Files app to set it as the app icon on your home screen.
This is how the app icon looks on the home screen, and when you click Add in the top right corner, it places the app icon on the home screen.
As you can see, this method works very well and the only drawback is the slight delay caused by the first launch of the shortcut.
You can put any image as an application icon using this method, but you will have to create a shortcut for each application for which you want to replace the icon. If you need a simpler solution, you can visit iskin.tooliphone.net to download custom app icons for free. You can check out this detailed guide on how to customize app icons on iPhone.
3. Change application icon layout
Even after allowing home screen settings, Apple still doesn’t allow app icons to be placed anywhere on the home screen. I mean, if the top lines on the home page are empty, then you can’t have app icons at the bottom of the screen. However, there are clever workarounds for this.
iempty.tooliphone.net offers a solution to this problem by creating a transparent set of icons that act as blank placeholders on the page. This means that you can have application icons of any shape or design on your home screen. Here’s how to set it up.
Open iempty.tooliphone.net on your iPhone in Safari browser. Scroll down and click the Add Blank Icons button. It will show you quick steps and download button below. Click the Download button.
Now we need to upload a screenshot of the blank screen. To go to a blank page, enter wiggle mode (press and hold any icon on the home screen) and swipe right until you get to a blank page.
Return to the Safari browser and download the screenshot you just took by uploading the file to a web page. Click Choose File to open the Photos menu.
The download will take a few seconds, and once it does, you should be able to see a preview of the icons that you can download.
The free version only allows you to download three blank badges, but you can unlock everything by buying the developer a $ 3 coffee. Click the download button to save the blank icons on the home screen.
The icons you just downloaded will not be visible until you enter wiggle mode. You can arrange the icons in the correct order to blend in with the wallpaper.
So, the main screen with blank icons is ready. With this method, you create various layouts and patterns that are functional and aesthetically pleasing.
4. Add widgets
The final addition to your iPhone’s home screen is widgets. They are located on the home screen between the app icons and provide valuable information. For example, I installed an analog clock, calendar, and battery widget to stay up to date without launching the app. Besides the built-in widgets, third-party apps will also be able to add widget functionality.
To add a widget to your home screen, enter wiggle mode by pressing and holding any app icon on the home screen. Click the + button in the upper right corner to open the widget panel.
Here you can search for all available widgets, once you find the widget you want and click the Add Widget button. This will give you three styles of widgets.
That’s it, home screen widgets. Enjoy!
Last words
These are all the home screen elements you can customize to create a truly personal home screen. What are you going to do with your home screen? Send me a screenshot on Twitter or comment on your suggestions below.
Also Read: How to Fix Clock Widget Time on iOS 14