For over a decade, the iPhone Home Screen maintained a strictly uniform appearance governed by colourful, individual application badges. Customising app colours required complicated Shortcuts workarounds with custom icon bookmarks that lacked notification badges. With iOS 18, Apple introduced native Home Screen customisation tools, allowing users to tint every app icon and widget to match their wallpaper, apply dark mode icons globally, and remove app name labels for a minimalist aesthetic.
Overview of Home Screen Styling Options in iOS 18
The redesigned customisation engine in iOS 18 introduces four distinct appearance states for icons and widgets:
- Automatic: Matches system appearance, displaying standard vibrant icons in light mode and switching automatically to dark variants at sunset.
- Dark: Replaces white and brightly coloured app backgrounds with sleek deep black canvas textures, maintaining contrast across first-party and compatible third-party apps.
- Light: Locks icons into standard bright appearances regardless of whether system-wide Dark Mode is engaged.
- Tinted: Converts all app icons and widget elements into a cohesive dual-tone monochrome look, using a custom colour hue that you can calibrate manually or sample directly from your wallpaper.
- Large Icon Sizing: Removes the textual labels underneath apps and widgets, expanding icon boundaries slightly for a clean, streamlined look.
Applying Dark Mode and Tinted Colours to App Icons
Customising your iPhone Home Screen aesthetic takes only a few simple steps:
- Unlock your iPhone running iOS 18 or later and navigate to the Home Screen.
- Press and hold any empty area of the wallpaper until the app icons begin to jiggle (jiggle mode).
- Tap the Edit button situated in the upper-left corner of the screen.
- From the drop-down menu, tap Customise.
- A floating styling sheet will slide up from the bottom of your display.
- Choose your preferred colour mode:
- Tap Dark to apply dark mode aesthetics across all icons and widgets.
- Tap Tinted to open the custom colour mixer.
Calibrating Custom Colour Tints and Wallpaper Eyedropping
When you select the Tinted mode, iOS 18 provides precision colour controls:
- Use the top horizontal gradient slider to choose your exact colour hue (ranging through blue, purple, magenta, amber, green, and slate).
- Use the bottom slider to adjust colour saturation and luminance depth, dialing between pastel tones and rich, saturated accents.
- To match your wallpaper automatically, tap the Eyedropper icon on the left edge of the styling sheet.
- Drag the circular magnifying loupe over any focal point of your Home Screen wallpaper (such as an ocean wave, sunset cloud, or architectural landmark) and lift your finger. iOS 18 extracts that exact colour pigment and applies it across all icons instantly.
- Tap anywhere on the upper Home Screen to dismiss the edit sheet and lock in your new aesthetic.
Enlarging Icons and Hiding Text Labels
If you prefer a minimalist visual grid free of text clutter:
- Enter Home Screen edit mode and tap Edit > Customise.
- Look at the top of the customisation drawer where two sizing squares are displayed.
- Tap the Large icon option.
- iOS 18 expands icon dimensions across your grid and completely removes text captions (such as “Messages”, “Settings”, or “Photos”) below every icon and widget.
- Tap the background to save. Your Home Screen adopts a clean, badge-focused presentation that puts your custom wallpaper front and centre.