Apple released iOS 18.2 on December 11, and that update brought many Apple Intelligence features, such as Genmoji AND Image playgroundfor some iPhones. But when Apple released iOS 18 in September, it introduced a big, long-overdue change to your iPhone: the ability to customize your home screen.
With iOS 18, you can remove app labels, change the color of app icons, arrange apps around the screen in new ways, and much more. So you can give your iPhone some holiday cheer by making your app icons green if your background is red or vice versa.
Read more: iOS 18 brings these features to your iPhone
Here are all the ways you can customize your home screen to make it as fun and unique as you are.
How to remove app tags in iOS 18
Tap Large to make your apps slightly larger and remove app labels.
1. Long press on the background to enter motion mode — where all your apps vibrate.
2. touch Edit in the upper left corner of your screen.
3. touch Customize.
4. touch Big in the new menu that appears at the bottom of your screen.
Your app icons will grow and the labels below them will disappear. This looks a lot cleaner to me and I don’t plan to show app tags anymore.
If you don’t like this, follow the steps above again, but tap Small. The apps will return to their normal size and the labels will reappear.
How to change the color of your app icons
1. Long press on the background to enter motion mode — where your apps vibrate.
2. touch Edit in the upper left corner of your screen.
3. touch Customize.
4. Tap the icon on the right edge of the menu at the bottom of your labeled screen Painted.
This will pull up a gradient scale at the bottom of this menu and you can slide them around until you get the right color.
The icon on the far right shows what a painted app would look like
You can also tap the eyedropper icon in the top right corner of the menu to choose a color from your background that best matches your icons. That way you’re not moving sliders and getting frustrated because the colors don’t match — not that that’s happened to me, definitely not. This change will affect all your app icons.
You can also give some of your apps a darker background.
1. Long press on the background to enter motion mode — where your apps vibrate.
2. touch Edit in the upper left corner of your screen.
3. touch Customize.
4. Tap the icon in the center left of the menu at the bottom of your labeled screen Dark.
Apple’s first-party apps, like Messages, Safari and more, will now have an almost black background. This change applies to Apple’s first-party apps and some third-party apps, such as the YouTube and Bluesky apps. Other third-party apps, such as Instagram and Snapchat, are unaffected.
Choosing Dark will darken your background, which can reduce the amount of power your iPhone uses and extend battery life.
How to darken only your background
If you’ve colored your app icons or like your icons to have a lighter look, you can darken your background to make the icons stand out. Here’s how.
1. Long press on a part of your wallpaper to enter motion mode — where your apps vibrate.
2. touch Edit in the upper left corner of your screen.
3. touch Customize.
4. Tap the sun icon in the upper left corner of the new menu.
This will only darken your background and not affect your app icons.
How to arrange apps around your home screen
Arranging apps on your home screen is the same process as before. You can either enter move mode by long-pressing on an empty part of your wallpaper and then dragging the apps where you want them to go, or by pressing and dragging an app to a new location.
You can place all your apps near the bottom of your screen, have them frame your screen, or arrange them in any number of other patterns. Since I’m right-handed, I placed most of my apps on the right side of my screen so I could easily tap them without fear of dropping my phone. It also makes it easy to make sure you see your background whether it’s a picture of a loved one or a pet.
The grid is still present, so you can’t place apps on top of each other or too close to each other. If you maximize your apps, there will be a large gap between your dock along the bottom of your screen and the bottom row of the grid. It looks like it’s big enough to fit another app icon, but you can’t — I tried to no avail.
For more on iOS 18, here’s what you need to know about iOS 18.2 AND iOS 18.1 and ours iOS 18 Cheat Sheet. You can also see what your iPhone might come with iOS 18.3.
Check this out: Tips for creating in Apple’s Playground and Genmoji