Here’s How to Customize Your iPhone with iOS 18

For years, one of the benefits of choosing Android over iOS has been the ability to move away from the rigid grid of app icons you used to have on your iPhone’s home screens: phones powered by Google’s mobile operating system let you experiment with different layouts, add interactive widgets, and even overhaul the entire interface with launcher.

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The personalization gap has recently narrowed and is smaller than ever with the release of iOS 18. The new software, which is now rolling out to millions of iPhones, expands on existing personalization options to give you even more control over how the interface looks — and there are three separate areas to look at.

Customize your home screens

You’ll be spending a lot of time looking at your home screens, so it makes sense that they should look the way you want them to. Recent versions of iOS have introduced home screen widgets and the option to hide parts of your home screen (you can find everything you’ve installed in your app library), but iOS 18 expands your home screen customization options even further.

Now you can leave gaps anywhere on the home screen grid—no workarounds or third-party apps required. Long-press a home screen shortcut until all the icons start shaking, then you can remove the app shortcut by tapping – (minus) icon and selection Remove from home screenYou can then drag icons to leave gaps and iOS will not automatically fill them in.

If you like the look of the wallpaper, you can place all the app icons at the bottom or top of the screen. You can also change the colors of these icons and change how they adapt when you switch between light and dark modes. Press and hold any app shortcut to make all the app tiles start to wiggle, then tap Edit (upper left corner) and Customize.

You have four options: icons that are always in light mode, always in dark mode, always according to the system light or dark mode settings, or that use a special color shade that you set (tap Colored to display the color picker). Above these options, you can toggle between Small and Large to change the size of the icons, too.

Customize Control Center

The Control Center has become more and more useful with each successive version of iOS, and iOS 18 is no exception. If you open the Control Panel normally by swiping down from the top-right corner of the screen, you’ll see that there are now four screens by default, and you can swipe up and down between them.

These screens are Favorites, Music, Home, and Contacts. You can customize any of them by tapping + (plus) icon in the upper right corner. On the Favorites screen, you can do things like drag controls, use the handles on the edges to resize control widgets, and tap – (minus) icons to remove controls. Tap Add control at the bottom to add something new.

The other screens work the same way, with some minor differences (for example, you can’t edit individual entries on the Contacts page). On the Music screen, the widget is full screen by default, but you can make it smaller and place more controls next to it if you want — each screen has Add control option.

On the right side of the display are small icons that show which screen you’re currently on, and at the bottom of that column you’ll see a small dot — tap that to create a new Control Center screen that you can configure however you like. Finally, you can use Control Center in Settings to set whether Control Center is available when you’re in apps (as well as on your home screen).

Customize your lock screen

Apple gave the iPhone Lock screen a major overhaul with iOS 16 in 2022, and while the changes aren’t quite as dramatic in iOS 18, there’s one tweak worth mentioning: for the first time, you can change the flashlight and camera shortcuts on the Lock screen or remove them entirely.

When the lock screen is visible, touch and hold anywhere on it, then select Customize AND Lock screen. The familiar options for dropping widgets on the lock screen appear, and you can also tap the time and date to change the format of those elements. Buttons for turning the depth effect on and off and switching between light and dark modes are also here.

The change is at the bottom: You can touch – (minus) button next to the flashlight or camera shortcut to remove it from its default position. You can leave this space blank or tap + (plus) button to put something else in its place. When you are done editing, tap Done to save changes.

When it comes to replacing the flashlight and camera buttons, you have a ton of options: you can add shortcuts to the stopwatch or timer, record a voice memo or open Apple Wallet, go to the calculator, turn on the iPhone hotspot, and more. Choose Open the applicationand the shortcut can point to any application.

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