iOS 18 brings a major overhaul to iPhone and iPad’s home screen. The new home screen features that have been introduced in this release give users new ways to customize their devices.
In this post, we have detailed all the new features that you will be getting for your home screen customization when iOS 18 is available for everyone. You should also watch our iOS 18 hands-on video embedded above, which demonstrates these features in great detail.
Place icons anywhere
In iOS 18 users can place app icons anywhere on the home screen. You can leave gaps between icons and even leave whole rows empty.
This new ability allows users to create custom layouts on their device’s home screen. You can set the icons to make them more accessible on bigger iPhone models, arrange icons in such a way that they are more aesthetically pleasing, or put them in such a way that your favorite wallpaper becomes more prominent.
Tinted Icons feature
Perhaps the biggest change for the home screen that has been introduced in iOS 18 is Tinted Icons. Now users can apply any tint of their choice to the app icons. The tint is applied across the whole home screen and covers stock app icons, third-party app icons, and widgets.
The Tinted Icons feature can be accessed by entering the wiggle mode and then tapping on the ‘Edit’ button from the top left corner. Finally, users can tap on the Customize option to access the new Home Screen Customization tool.
When you tap on the Tinted option iOS automatically applies a tint to your icons and widgets that matches the dominant color of your wallpaper. If you want to use a different tint, then you can move the sliders to adjust the colors or use the dropper tool to select any color that’s on your wallpaper.
Dark icons
iOS 18 brings dark theme icons to the iPhone and iPad. Now users can select the Dark option from the Home Screen Customization tool to turn all of their stock apps into dark mode. Almost all stock app icons turn dark when this option is selected. This feature will also expand to third-party apps as they get updated to support this feature.
Home Screen widgets also become dark when this option is enabled.
Large icons
In iOS 18 you can make the home screen icons larger. This can be done by selecting the option from the home screen customization tool.
When the Large icons option is enabled iOS hides the app icon labels, which gives a nice clean look to the home screen.
Darkened wallpaper
In iOS 18 you get an option to make the wallpaper appear darker. This can be turned on from the home screen customization tool.
Must read: iOS 18 Control Center: Pages, Resizable Buttons, Add a Control Screen, And More
