Your IPhone Will Finally Let You Place App Icons Wherever You Want
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At today’s WWDC 2024 keynote, Apple announced that iOS 18, the latest version of the iPhone operating system, finally gets a feature that Android users have been enjoying for over a decade. Once updated, your iPhone will allow you to place app icons anywhere on your home screen. Previously, you could move icons around, but it was impossible to place icons only at the bottom of the screen if the top rows were empty.
During the keynote, Apple demo footage showed how you’ll be able to place app icons in all corners of your screen so you can clearly see the wallpaper image without icons hiding the important parts (your dog’s adorable face).
If you like messing up the aesthetics of your home screen, there are even more features you can try.
Dark mode filters and app icon color schemes.
iOS 18 will also bring improvements to dark mode, which will allow you to change the color of app icons to match your nighttime mood (see screenshot at the top of this post). Previously, your iPhone’s app icons wouldn’t change color if your phone went into dark mode, but now you’ll have some control over this. And not only will dark app icons be supported, but you’ll be able to choose a custom tint color at any time to make those icons match the aesthetic of your wallpaper.
It’s unclear whether developers will have to add support for custom app icon tints or whether iOS 18 will allow you to customize icons even if developers haven’t updated their apps with the feature. But considering that changing app icons and customizing the home screen have required tedious workarounds in the past, it’s good that these features have been officially added to iOS 18.
This is a developing story. Apple’s WWDC keynote is currently ongoing, with WWDC continuing until June 14th. Lifehacker will update this story with relevant information as it is announced.