Is the home screen of your iPhone a mess in no time and you can no longer find anything? Then it’s high time to clean things up again. In this week’s iPhone tips you can read how to do that and also how to keep your home screen tidy!
A personal and tidy home screen
Do you have multiple home screens chock full of apps and folders, and can you no longer see the forest for the trees? With our iPhone tips you can easily put an end to this for good, and at the same time you make your iPhone a lot more personal. Get started right away!
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1. Clear the home screen
To start, it’s a good idea to clear your home screen. It is not necessary to be completely empty, the most important thing is that everything becomes clear again. You don’t have to worry about losing apps, because you just delete them from the home screen. You do this as follows:
- Long press on an app until a menu appears;
- Tap ‘Delete app’;
- Tap ‘Remove from Home Screen’.
If you no longer need a particular app, tap ‘Remove app’ in step 3.
It is also useful to set that new apps you install do not automatically end up on your home screen. Of course you can find them in the App Library (swipe to the left until the last screen appears). Setup goes like this:
- Open the Settings app;
- Tap ‘Home Screen’;
- Tap ‘App Library Only’.
2. Change the background
With number 2 of this week’s iPhone tips you can make your home screen more personal. The easiest way to do that is to choose a background that suits you. That is of course not very special, but it certainly belongs on this list. You can choose from a huge number of different wallpapers, but you can also use a photo that you have taken yourself. This is how you change it:
- Open the Settings app;
- Tap ‘Wallpaper’ and then ‘+Add new wallpaper’;
- Choose a featured image or tap Photos at the top left;
- If you choose a photo, tap ‘All’ and find a suitable photo;
- Tap the photo you want and then tap ‘Add’.
You can add different wallpapers and switch them easily from the lock screen. Long press the lock screen and you can scroll through your wallpapers by swiping left or right.
3. Different Backgrounds with Focus
You can use the Focus feature to create different backgrounds for different times, for example one for work and one for private use. But the possibilities are endless. You can set a Focus as follows:
- Open the Settings app;
- Tap ‘Focus’;
- Choose a focus mode, add appropriate apps and set a wallpaper;
- Set a focus schedule and add filters as desired.
4. Add widgets
Number 4 of this week’s iPhone tips is about adding widgets. Widgets are useful for always having information from certain apps on display, or for quick access to certain functions. Weather widgets are popular with many people, but nowadays you have many different options. To add a widget:
- Long press on an empty part of your home screen;
- Tap the ‘+’ sign at the top left;
- Find the widget you want to add and tap it;
- Swipe left and/or right to determine size;
- Tap ‘+Add widget’.
5. Organize the home screen
If an otherwise empty home screen isn’t for you, make sure you only put the apps you really need on it. And also make sure that the apps are organized in a logical manner.
You can place the apps that more or less belong together in the same folder on your home screen. A folder is automatically created when you drag an app “on top of another.” You can then give the folder an appropriate name.
6. Change icons
Number 6 of this week’s iPhone tips is about changing the default iOS icons, which can provide more overview. For example, you can use all photography icons the same color to give. But it is also possible to retro icons to use if you like. Actually, you don’t really change the icon, but you create a shortcut and use any image you want for it. The change goes as follows:
- Make sure you have downloaded the desired icons;
- Open the Assignments app and tap the ‘+’ sign at the top right;
- Tap ‘+ Add task’;
- Use the search field to search for ‘Open app’ and select it;
- Tap ‘app’ (next to ‘Open’);
- Find the app whose icon you want to change and select it;
- Open the menu via the arrow next to ‘Open app’ at the top of the screen;
- Tap ‘Change name’ and enter the name you want;
- In the same menu as before, choose ‘Add to home screen’;
- Under ‘Home screen name and icon’, tap the icon;
- Tap Choose Photo, add the photo you want, then tap Add at the top right;
Do this for all apps whose icons you want to change. That may seem like a lot of work, but you will get the hang of it.
Looking for more iPhone tips?
Did you find these iPhone tips interesting and want more? On iPhoned you can read useful tips and tricks for your iPhone every week. Check out the most recent tips below!
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