Old school, Animal Crossing, a e s t h e t i c s, what’s your favorite?
iOS 14 introduced customizable widgets on the home screen. It’s a fantastic feature that finally lets iOS users get data at a glance. I’ve actually replaced my home screen with two widgets. One, a stack of widgets that goes between my calendar and reminders and the hourly weather forecast. The other is Siri suggestions. I find it often knows the apps I should check in on, like knowing I want to start up Spotify in the morning and take a meditation break around noon. That works for me. I like an uncluttered iOS. I don’t even use other app pages anymore, relying just on the iOS 14 App Library. Other people have wanted something a little… extra.
An app is going viral on Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok for its ability to, along with Siri Shortcuts in iOS 14, completely customize the look of your home screen. Now users are finding ways to introduce themed widgets and new app icons. The resulting home screens have themes ranging from the user’s favorite TV shows to simple color schemes, and more.
If you wanted the customizability of Android on iOS, this is as good as it’s ever been.
Update:
Hey, before you start, you may want to create a backup. That way, if you hate everything, you can restore to the latest backup. Do this on your computer through a USB connection, and turn off iCloud backups. This is only if you’re worried that you may hate your customizations, but you may not.
You can also simply do everything on a separate home screen. Create a new home screen for all of your new customizations, and simply hide your other ones. You can do this by pressing and holding to enter “jiggle mode,” tapping the dots at the bottom, and hiding the pages you were using. This will ensure you can always go back to your normal view, without needing to restore from a backup (this method will leave all your shortcuts though).
Step 1: Icons
This is the hackiest of the steps, but it can give you the look you want with only a small concession. Basically, you’ll create a Siri Shortcut that will allow you to launch an app. Then you’ll give that Siri Shortcut a custom icon. Launching it will launch Shortcuts, then launch the app. That adds about half a second to any app loading. If that’s worth it and you need more instructions, here’s how to do it.
First, make sure you have the Shortcuts app. It’s an Apple app, if you’re worried about doing weird things on your phone. This is Apple-approved weird things!
Up at the top, press the ‘+’ button.
In the search bar, type “Open App.”
Select “Open App” in the “Actions” list.
It’ll say Open <Choose>. Tap <Choose>.
Pick the app you want to launch.
Tap the three dots button on the right side.
Tap “Add to Home Screen.” Don’t worry that we haven’t named it yet. You can do so if you want to organize the apps in your Shortcuts App better, but it’s not necessary, you’ll name what goes on the home screen later.
You should see a preview of your icon. Below it, you can enter the name for your shortcut, then tap on the icon next to it.
Here you can select any image you want to serve as the icon for your app.
I just took the Among Us logo, gave it a dark background and some stars and tossed Red out of an airlock because, well, Red sus. (Red was not the imposter.)
Repeat this for any icons you want to customize. You can find images to use for icons online, or perhaps in some apps that may spring up. Just search for “iOS icons” and you’ll find plenty to use for inspiration.
Step 2: Widgets
One of the most popular apps for this right now is Widgetsmith. It’s a free app, however, Widgetsmith has a subscription for some of its more advanced widgets. Still, the simple options are fun enough. There are many other widget customization apps now, including Color Widgets, Widgeridoo and others, but here’s how to use Widgetsmith, since it’s highly customizable, but also a little complicated.
First, think of the size of your widget. Do you want it taking up a 2×2 area, a 4×2 area, or practically the whole screen?
Next, select either “Add <Size> Widget” or select one to edit.
Select the type from the list, then select any options from under it. Some have different backgrounds, fonts, or icons you can use. Others aren’t as customizable. Pick what you like, then press back, and then save.
Tap to rename your widget. Make sure it’s memorable, you’ll have to find it later with only its name. Then tap save.
Now, exit the app and go to your home screen. Press and hold on it to enter “Jiggle Mode,” where you can edit your app and widget layout.
Press the ‘+’ button in the top left corner of the screen and scroll down to Widgetsmith.
Select the size of the widget you want.
Tap Add Widget.
Back on the home screen, tap and hold on your widget. Select edit.
On this page, you can select which of the small widgets you created you wish to load in this position.
And that’s it!
With these two techniques, you can create some amazing home screens. Add your own icons, widgets, and backgrounds to create your own themes. You can even add as many or as few home screens as you want, since apps can stay in the App Library now if you don’t need them to be available on a home screen all the time. You could potentially make multiple themes and just hide/show them throughout the day, changing the entire appearance of your device in seconds.
iOS 14 has given us Android-like customization on iOS. Finally. Now start using it!