For years, I’ve had a fairly austere iOS home screen. Two or three rows of icons at the top of the screen, sometimes arranged so that the colors of the app icons complement each other, and three apps in the dock. Because Apple doesn’t want its users to mess with the look and feel of the home screen, I’ve not been able to make it as simple as I’d like.
I’ve been eyeing Android’s more customizable home screens with envy. I’ve owned an iPhone since the day it came out, and while Apple’s smartphones have gotten far more powerful, capable, and larger since then, the company has forced me to organize my apps along the top of the screen for 17 years.
Sure, my home screen looked nice most of the time. But I wanted options to add more of my own flair to the home screen I see dozens of times a day — the kinds of tools longtime Android users have had — even if it meant making my phone look worse. iOS 14’s widgets were a step in the right direction, and with some Siri Shortcuts wizardry, you can create some pretty awesome themes.
But iOS 18, the dam has finally burst: As part of the new software update, Apple is giving users a set of tools to easily customize the app icons on their home screen, without jailbreaking or Siri Shortcuts. You can give all of your apps the same overall color with a tinting tool, and icons can become darker if you switch to Dark Mode. You can also — again, Finally — Place your app icons wherever you want, making them easier to reach or arranging them to better match your wallpaper.
How did I use these new powers? Finally I could create my dream minimalist home screen.
I love it. This is how I’ve wanted to design my iOS home screen for years: a few apps at my thumb’s reach and little else to mess things up. And the best part is that it only took a few minutes to put together.
Let me explain.
First, I immediately made my app icons gray and boring to match my gray and boring background. The gray tint makes apps harder to tell apart, and that’s the point: I wanted to add some friction to my phone so I waste less time on it.
Next, I moved my apps from the top to the bottom. This makes them more accessible when I need them on my iPhone 12 Mini. (I imagine this Real (Handy with a Plus or Pro Max iPhone.) An unexpected benefit is that any new apps I download are added to the top from the screen where they protrude.
I’ve said before that I try to keep as few apps on my phone as possible. All the apps that hang at the top of my screen are stark reminders that I need to either organize them on my home screen, put them in my App Library, or delete them from my phone. (Usually it’s the latter.)
I also hid the labels on my apps, so there’s basically no text on the screen. I wish I could remove the word “Search” from the button above the dock so there would be no words at all. Maybe we’ll get that in iOS 36.
I’ve been using iOS 18’s new Control Center features to make my phone more boring, too. You can now create a native toggle for the Color Filters accessibility setting, which I turn on to make everything on my phone grayscale. I’ve found that this makes my phone less interesting, and I view the gray as a visual cue that I should be doing something else instead of using my phone. But if I want to see a photo of my kid in full color for a moment, I can tap the toggle to turn off grayscale.
Yes, the changes I’ve made are ugly and sometimes annoying. But they’re Mine choices, and I’m glad Apple gave me these tools in the first place. People put weird stuff on the outside of their phones all the time, and with iOS 18, that chaos could spill over into what’s on their home screens. When the update rolls out to everyone this fall, I expect an explosion of delicious and wacky designs.
And when I get tired of my grayscale, minimalist iPhone? It’s easier than ever to create something new.