My iPhone home screen vs what I wish my iPhone home screen could look like.
I’ve said it before, if it wasn’t for very few things, apps and iMessage, I’d jump ship to Android for my HTC U11 in a heart beat. Especially after seeing all the stuff coming to Android P (more on that later). One of the biggest reasons I want to switch is the customization options. I use Nova Launcher as my launcher app on Android (like an app that replaces your home screen, for those of you on iOS), and it’s highly customizable. I want this on iOS, but Apple doesn’t let us customize anything. We can’t even put apps where we want to on the home screen, they all sort to the top. Why the top, Apple? Don’t you realize that’s the part of the screen that’s the hardest to reach?
Fortunately, there’s a workaround here. As you can see from the screenshot above, I recently gave my home screen a bit of a makeover. The apps are sorted to the bottom, making them easy to reach with my thumb. It involves tricking iOS into allowing you to have spaces on your home screen. Here’s how you do it.
In This Article:
What We’ll be Doing
‘Cause I’ve got a blank space, baby…
There’s no way in iOS 11 to change the way your apps appear on your screen. They’re either displayed or in folders. In both cases, they’re weighted to the top-left, the way the words appear on this page. Apple gives you absolutely no other options. There’s no home screen widgets either, so don’t even think about using the space for a widget. Instead, we’re going to put “blank” icons in the spaces at the top, moving your apps down within reach. We’ll do this by turning off the parallax effect on the home screen, taking a screenshot, and using home screen bookmarks from a webpage to fill up the space.
Why Should You do This?
I know, it sounds like a lot of work. It really isn’t. But I know what you’re thinking “Why would I want fewer apps on my home screen?” If you’re not, skip down to setup. If you’re still in need of convincing, keep reading.
Easier to reach apps
The apps that are easy to reach with my right thumb. Note that every app is mostly within the ring.
Hold your phone comfortably in one hand. Hold out your thumb without shifting your grip and take a look at where your thumb reaches. Sure, you can probably shift your grip to reach the top, but every time you do you come closer to dropping your iPhone. Even with a case, that can sometimes be catastrophic. If the apps are all within reach, you reduce the chance you’ll have to perform finger yoga to reach your apps. It’ll be easier on you, and you’ll make the chances of breaking your screen smaller.
Less App Clutter
“But I need those apps!” Do you? Take a look at your home screen. Mine used to be full of folders. Even my most frequently used apps were in folders. I even had a folder on my dock. But all of these app folders were just holding one or two apps I used on a daily basis. Sure, I like Snapchat, but do I use it every few hours? No, I’m not a teenager wasting my time worrying about streaks, so I slid it over to my second home screen. You can have as many home screens as you wish, so why not use them?
I looked through my folders. I mostly use Flipboard and Pocket from my news folder, so they came out and the rest went to the second home screen. App Store, Settings, the Phone app, all could be moved off my home page. Suddenly, I was liberated from all that clutter. Every app on my home screen doesn’t require a folder. Everything is within reach of just one tap, and my apps are well organized. This is going to speed up my usage of iOS, and make things easier to find.
It’s Fun!
Look at these! They’re so much fun! Sure, you might look at my simplistic home screen and think it’s boring, but these can be fun and exciting. People may take a look at your home screen and actually compliment you on it! Mine is utilitarian, it’s there to help save battery life, add just a bit of color, and it’s easy to customize because every spot on the background is the same. Still, you may choose to take the time to make something really special, and, as you can see, it turns out great. If you do go with a simplistic wallpaper, remember you can have a different wallpaper on your lock screen, so you can still have an image to change frequently and have fun with.
Setting up Your iPhone
Ok, you’re convinced to go through with this. You can use one of makeovr.io‘s own wallpapers, or bring your own. Their Mario Wallpaper gives you some really cool options, but if Mario isn’t your thing, don’t worry, you can bring your own wallpaper. Here’s how to do that.
The first thing you’ll want to do is set up your iPhone for it. First, pick a wallpaper, something you will enjoy using for a while. Set it up in Settings > Wallpaper. Choose “Still,” not “Perspective.” You don’t want your app icons moving, because otherwise the “blank spaces” effect will be broken. You may also want to choose to turn on Reduce Motion, Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion. However, I didn’t find this necessary.
Next, tap and hold on an icon to get into “Edit” mode on your home screen. The icons should be wiggling. Swipe all the way to the right to get to a blank home screen. Then, take a screenshot. On the iPhone 8 and below, press the home and lock button simultaneously. On the iPhone X, press the volume up and lock button simultaneously. Then, head over to makeovr.io to get your blank spaces.
A Note on Reorganizing
You’ll be reducing the number of apps on one of your home screen pages. Make sure you load it up with the apps you want to use. Clear out your home screen by dragging everything (but one icon) to the second home screen. Then, drag back only what you want to keep. This way, you won’t have to shuffle things around when you’re reorganizing your home screen with the blank spaces.
Getting the Blank Spaces
Scroll down on makeovr.io until you see the “Start MAKEOVR” button. Tap it. Upload the screenshot you just took of your home screen. When it’s done, you’ll get a page with each icon highlighted. Now comes the tricky part: organizing them.
Saving Them to Your Home Screen
Your wallpaper might be more interesting than mine, but this is how you select items.
On makeover.io, select the space you want to use. Tap it. You should see a red outline around that icon. Press the share button (a box with an arrow coming out of it). You may have to swipe on the options on the bottom, but you should be able to find one that says “Add to Home Screen.” Tap that. On the dialog, leave the name blank and add it to your home screen.
Next, you’ll be shown your home screen, possibly with an invisible app icon. Drag it where you want to, and you’ll have a new blank space.
Repeat this process for every space you want to add to your home screen. If the images are the same, like my wallpaper, you can more quickly reuse them. However, if they’re not, just select the icon you want to use before adding the bookmark to your home screen. Eventually, you’ll work yourself into a pattern, and find it’s pretty quick to fill up your screen with spaces.
Apple’s Reluctance
This was likely time consuming for you, but it does create a really cool effect. It’s a shame that Apple doesn’t trust their users enough to have personality and taste, and tries to squeeze us all into the same rectangle. Fortunately, this clever workaround has been in use for some time, and shouldn’t break with a new OS update. iOS 12 is expected to be a lot like iOS 11, only with fewer bugs. Apple had apparently been planning a real makeover for iOS, specifically the outdated home screen, but it seems their rush to cram features into iOS 11 lead to too many bugs, and those cool new features are being pushed back to iOS 13.
With Google putting the power of machine learning in their third party app developers hands, making support for old operating systems easier on their developers, tweaking the user interface for quick usability and large screens, allowing customization, and unifying all text messages to work like iMessage, soon there may be little reason to stick with iOS. Let’s hope Apple pulls it together and releases some great surprises with iOS 12 and iOS 13, because, at this point, third party app developers are supporting Apple. Honestly, though, at this point though, I’m not sure who I’m rooting for.