Why your iPhone home screen needs a makeover

This is the sight we’re all familiar with: rows and columns of neatly arranged app icons. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? According to MacRumors and Bloomberg, Apple will update his iPhone’s home screen with iOS 18, making it more customizable.

We won’t know until Apple announces iOS 18, most likely at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10th. However, if these reports are true, the iPhone home screen could end up looking a bit like Android’s home screen. MacRumors suggests that this update may allow more flexibility in how icons are arranged on the home screen. For example, the report suggests that you will be able to leave blank space between icons and widgets.

Changing your home screen is a delicate task. Apple needs to straddle the line between comfort and familiarity. We call it the “boundary line.” House We present screens for a reason, while introducing new features and functionality.

But when it comes to the home screen, change can be a good thing.

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The iPhone home screen hasn’t changed much over the years. iOS 16 brings a new lock screen with customizable fonts, added depth to photos, and a 3D-like effect. Your home screen deserves a makeover of its own.

Giving users more freedom in arranging app icons may seem like a small thing. Many people will be satisfied with a well-organized app. But the option to add space between apps and widgets can open up new possibilities.

First, there could be more emphasis on wallpaper, and perhaps Apple could even design new wallpaper options with this in mind. The option to place apps near the bottom of the screen is also useful when using your phone one-handed. A reachability mode already exists for this purpose. But it might feel more natural to just have apps within arm’s reach.

In the short term, these changes will likely make it easier to organize your apps. But what interests me most about a more personalized home screen is the idea behind it. These small changes give you the freedom to turn your home screen into anything you want, whether it’s a checkerboard of apps, a dashboard of your favorite widgets, or anything in between.

There is a clear need for more personalization of the iPhone home screen. iPhone users have come up with all sorts of workarounds to put distance between apps. This includes using third-party tools to create the look of blank space and saving web pages with transparent logos as shortcuts on your home screen.

Android users have had this luxury for a long time. On Android devices, you can drag and drop app icons almost anywhere on your home screen.

I mentioned earlier that the home screen hasn’t changed much over the years. That’s true on a fundamental level, but it’s an oversimplification. Apple has gradually expanded what you can do on your iPhone’s home screen in subtle but useful ways.

For example, back in 2020, iOS 14 brought two important changes: Home screen widgets and App Library. The former allows you to pin useful information such as the time and weather to your home screen. The latter allows you to easily organize your clutter by organizing your apps into specific folders.

Then came Dynamic Island, which made it easy to monitor in-app activity from your home screen, including your Uber’s estimated arrival time. Although it’s not technically a home screen in the traditional sense, iOS 17’s Standby mode can also be considered an evolution of the iPhone’s default screen. Standby mode essentially turns your iPhone into a small smart display, showing items like the time, weather, calendar, etc. while the device is charging and in landscape mode.

Considering features like dynamic islands and standby mode, we suspect some big changes are in store for the home screen. The option to arrange apps more fluidly may seem unrelated to these features on the surface, but it’s probably just as well in the future, when the iPhone home screen will be more than just an app grid. It may indicate.