Apple has updated the iPhone home screen in iOS 18, adding several new customization and personalization options. Now, you can place application icons anywhere on the screen, change their size and color, hide applications, and change icons on the lock screen.
Icon and Widget Customization
In iOS 18, icons and widgets can be placed anywhere on the home screen, not just next to each other. This allows for empty spaces between the icons, enabling you to experiment with the layout. You can place icons in a checkerboard pattern, leave empty rows or columns between icons, and more. However, the grid system still remains, so complete freedom is not given. You can place one icon in the center of the screen on a separate page or a row of icons at the top and bottom of the screen.
To move icons, pinch an empty space on your home screen to activate edit mode, drag application icons to new locations, and click “Done”. In iOS 18, you can also enlarge application icons by removing application names. This does not change the number of applications on one page, but the captions to the icons disappear. Even with large icons, the page displays six rows, each containing four icons.
To enlarge icons, pinch empty space on your home screen, click “Edit,” and choose a large icon size. Note that you cannot have small icons on one page and large icons on another; the settings affect all home screen pages.
Widgets can now be resized directly on the home screen. Simply pinch and drag the widget frame to make it larger or smaller. Each widget has a minimum and maximum size. For example, a battery widget can be horizontal 4 icons, 6 icons, or square 4×4. To resize a widget, pinch an empty space on your home screen to activate edit mode and drag the widget’s border to resize it.
New Widgets and Dark Mode Icons
Apple has added a new health widget in iOS 18, displaying information from the Health app and Apple Watch. The widget shows data for the day or week, and there’s also a widget for tracking bike rides. Using the health widget, you can conveniently monitor your heart rate, sleep, breathing, and more. A “Journal” application widget has also appeared, allowing you to quickly start recording and displaying the number of days in a row that you have made journal entries. Additionally, new electrical-related Home app widgets are available.
In iOS 18, dark mode changes the color of app icons on the home screen. Instead of a white background, icons now have a black background, making them blend better with the system. You can make icons dark without activating dark mode system-wide, and the color of the icons can change automatically to match the light and dark themes. For now, dark mode is only available for standard application icons, but in the future, third-party app developers will be able to add support for this feature.
To change the color of your icons and wallpaper, pinch empty space on your home screen, click “Edit” and then “Customize.” Choose dark, light, or automatic theme for icons, and here you can also change their size and darken the wallpaper.
Enhanced Privacy and Lock Screen Customization
In iOS 18, you can protect apps using Face ID and Touch ID and hide them from the home screen. Hidden applications are displayed in a special folder in the application library with authentication access. These apps do not appear in search and cannot be opened by Siri without authentication. Notifications and calls from such applications are disabled, ensuring maximum confidentiality, notes NIX Solutions.
To protect or hide an app, long-press the icon of the desired application, enable the “Require Face ID” option, and authenticate using Face ID or Touch ID. If you just want to protect the application with authentication, click “Require Face ID” again. If you need to hide the application, click “Hide and require Face ID.”
iOS 18 also introduces new options for changing icons. For the first time, the camera and flashlight icons on the lock screen can be changed to different ones or removed altogether. You can choose any Control Center option for the Lock Screen buttons, including Shortcuts, Dark Mode, Airplane Mode, Remote, Alarm, Calculator, Translate, and more. This change ties into a redesign of the Control Center, giving you more possibilities for what you can launch from the Lock Screen.
Additionally, there are four new wallpaper options available in iOS 18, with dark versions of them.
We’ll keep you updated on any further enhancements and features as they become available.