The arrival of widgets in iOS 14 opens up new perspectives in screen customization. Find out how to customize your iPhone interface.
If there’s one thing iPhone users aren’t used to, it’s over-customizing the look of their device’s home screen, as is possible on Android. But with iOS 14 and the arrival of widgets, new horizons are opening up in terms of customization.
New apps, like WidgetSmith, have sprung up on the App Store. They allow you to create fully personalized widgets from scratch, giving your home screen a more personal touch. And to take the customization of the interface a little further, you can use Apple’s Shortcuts application to create shortcuts to the personalized icon, able to escape your applications by opening them without pressing the button. original icon. All you have to do is hide them within the library so that you end up with a single iOS interface.
But before you throw yourself headlong into this long and tedious personalization process, first download to your device all the graphic elements (logo, icons, wallpapers, etc.), which you will need to create your homepage. Do not hesitate to launch a query in a search engine to find any icon packs.
1. Download WidgetSmith
Start by downloading the WidgetSmith app from the App Store. Offered for free, it allows you to create personalized widgets for your iPhone. In its free version, it offers clock and calendar widgets, but also offers to create photo widgets, photo albums, text, or just empty widgets.
Download WidgetSmith for iPhone (Free)
2. Create your custom widgets
Open the WidgetSmith app. By default, three widgets of three different sizes are suggested. You can choose to enter these widgets to customize them, or press Add small / medium / large widget to create a new one and customize it.
You can then choose the format and type of information displayed, but also their color, background color, transparency, font, etc. Once you have changed these preferences, go back to the previous screen and save your widget by pressing Save.
3. Add your custom widgets to the home screen
To add your custom widget to the home screen, tap and hold it to activate edit mode. Then tap the + button, select your WidgetSmith widget and tap Add Widget to embed it on your home screen.
If you have configured multiple widgets in multiple sizes within WidgetSmith, tap and hold the widget and choose to Edit Widget. You can then select the version of the widget to use.
4. Download Shortcuts
For the rest of the screen customization, that is to say to change the icons of your applications, you will need the Apple Shortcuts application. Download it to your device. It is thanks to it that you will be able to create shortcuts using a personalized icon, and which, once activated, will open the correct application.
Download Shortcuts for iPhone (Free)
5. Create an application with a custom icon
Open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone and tap the + button at the top right to create a new shortcut. Then tap Add action, select Script and tap Open App.
Tap Choose, select the app to open and tap Next. Enter the name of the shortcut and validate by touching the OK button.
From the Shortcuts homepage, where all the already existing shortcuts are displayed, press the options button represented by three small dots, of the shortcut you have just created. Press the options button again, and choose to add it to the home screen.
In the Name & Icon section of the Home screen, tap the icon and then tap Choose Photo or Choose File, depending on where you saved your icons. Then validate your choice by pressing Choose, then Add. At this point, you should have your first custom icon displayed on the iPhone home screen.
Repeat this step as many times as necessary for each application whose icon you want to replace. When you tap on the custom icon, it will briefly open the Shortcuts application which will run the script and launch the associated application.
6. Remove the original apps from the home screen
Now that you’ve created shortcuts to your favorite apps with custom icons, all that’s left is to hide the original apps by removing them from the home screen. To do this, tap and hold an app to remove and choose to Remove app.
You can then choose to Move it to the app library. The application will not be deleted from the device and will remain accessible from the iOS 14 library.
7. Personalize iPhone wallpaper
Last essential step to offer the perfect look to your iPhone, the wallpaper, the centerpiece of a successful interface. Open iOS Settings, enter the Wallpaper menu and tap on Choose new wallpaper.
Then navigate through your photos to select the image you want to add as a wallpaper, adjust and move the image if necessary and press Set. Then choose to apply it on Home screen to use it on the main iPhone screen.
Your iPhone’s home screen is now completely personalized. If you’re running out of inspiration, don’t hesitate to take to Twitter and search for the hashtag. # ios14homecreen to visualize the sometimes extremely well-polished creations of users around the world.