iOS 14 gives you a lot more freedom to organize your home screen than before. Curious about what is possible? You can read all about it in this article.
Homescreen Guide: Personalize Your Homescreen in iOS 14
Are you tired of your old homescreen and are you ready for something new? Then sit down for a while, because in this guide we will walk you through how to organize your home screen exactly the way you want it, step by step.
1. Clean up homescreen
Personalizing your homescreen starts with cleaning it up. iOS 14 comes with an App Library, so you can keep your home screen organized. You can find this list by swiping left on your home screen. If you swipe down once, you will see all your apps in alphabetical order.
This app list allows you to clean up your home screen by moving unimportant apps to your App library. That is very easy:
- Long press the home screen until the apps start to wiggle;
- Press the minus button in the top left of the ‘old’ app;
- Then choose ‘Move to app library’;
- Do this for all apps you want to move.
In addition, you can hide pages on your homescreen in iOS 14. That works very simply:
- Long press the home screen until the app icons start to wiggle;
- Press the dots at the bottom of your home screen;
- You will now see all pages on your home screen. Uncheck the pages you want to hide.
If you are going to adjust your homescreen, it is of course nice to also choose a nice background. Also set this, so that you can match it with the foreground if necessary.
2. Add widgets and widget stacks
As soon as you only have your favorite apps on your home screen, you can start adding widgets. The arrival of widgets is one of the biggest visual changes in iOS 14 from its predecessor. These functional app windows show a reduced version of an app in a fixed place on your home screen.
That way you can see at a glance what the weather will be like that week, or what you still have on your to do list. You can add widgets very easily:
- To do this, long press the screen until the app icons start to wobble;
- Press the plus sign at the top left;
- Here you will see a list of available widgets;
- Tap the widget you want to add to your home screen;
- Drag the widget to the desired location;
- Tap Done.
It is also possible to stack multiple widgets on top of each other. That way they take up much less space. That works very easily:
- First add the desired widgets to your home screen;
- Long press your screen so that the widgets and app icons start to wiggle;
- Then drag the widgets over each other.
The widgets will now automatically stack. You can change the order of the widgets by long-pressing the stack and tapping ‘Edit stack’. Then drag the widgets into the desired order. Here you can also remove widgets by swiping them to the left.
3. Personalize your widgets
Adding widgets is not over yet. You can also personalize these app windows. Apps have already been developed to organize your widgets to your taste. One of these is Widgetsmith, developer of the well-known Watchsmith app. Here you can put together your own widget, from format and content to color and font. Choose the size of your widget yourself: small, medium or large. The widget can show information that you choose yourself. You can choose from:
- Time
- Date
- photos
- Calendar
- Memories
- Weather
- Health
- Tide (water movement)
- Astronomy
It is also possible to set times for widgets in the app: for example, you can show the weather in the morning, your appointments in the afternoon and your activity rings for exercising in the evening. Add your self-curated widget by tapping the plus sign again and opening the Widgetsmith app.
The ColorWidgets app also lets you give your widgets a personal twist. With the app you make a time and battery widget, to which you can add the most beautiful colors yourself. The app is free, but for a one-time payment you get even more color options. There are also more widget apps available in the App Store. Some of the options:
- Weather Line (weather)
- Fitbod (sport)
- Coinbase (cryptocurrency)
- App in the Air (to travel)
Knowing more? Then read our article about personalizing widgets
4. Choose your own images as app icons
Now that your widgets are on your home screen exactly the way you want, you can even give your app icons a makeover. Since iOS 14, it is possible to add your own images via the Assignments app. You can draw new pictures yourself, or use existing pictures. Of course you can also browse the internet or find nice pictures.
Make sure the dimensions of your new app icon 180 x 180 pixels to be. Adding an image is done in no time. However, you must first create a new assignment in the Assignments app. It goes like this:
- Open the Assignments app and tap the plus sign at the top right;
- Tap on ‘Add task’;
- Search for ‘Open app’ and confirm your choice;
- Tap on ‘Choose’ and enter the name of the app for which you want to change the icon;
- Then tap the three dots at the top right of the screen;
- Enter the name of the app and then tap ‘add to home screen’;
- Enter the name of the app again under ‘Name and symbol for home screen’.
Once the assignment has been created to open an app, it’s time to add your own image:
- Tap the order icon;
- Then tap on ‘Choose photo’;
- Choose your desired photo and confirm your choice.
Read here in detail about adding your own image as an app icon
Need inspiration? Since the arrival of iOS 14, creative iPhone users have been sharing their self-designed home screens. So has MacRumors now one forum set up where people share their personalized home screens.
More about iOS 14
iOS 14 takes big steps forward. Not only is the home screen completely different, the update also adds long-awaited features such as setting Chrome as the default browser or Gmail as the default Mail app. Also smaller functions, such as picture-in-picture or setting burst mode with your volume button, make your iPhone even easier to use. Want to know more about iOS 14? You can read all about it on our iOS 14 overview page.