Apple released iOS 26 on Monday, Sept. 15, a few months after the company announced it at the June Worldwide Developers Conference. The update brings call screening, new ringtones and lots of hidden features to your iPhone. It also introduces a Liquid Glass design to your device, and as part of the redesign you can make your app icons and widgets on your home screen clear. This builds on the home screen customization options Apple introduced to the iPhone with iOS 18.
Apple released iOS 18 in 2024 and it introduced a major (and long overdue) change to your iPhone, the ability to customize your home screen. With iOS 18, you can remove app labels, change the color of app icons, arrange apps around the screen in new ways and much more. You can frame your background with your apps or give your iPhone a more personal touch with different colored apps.
Here are the ways you can customize your home screen to make it as fun and unique as you are.
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How to remove app labels
1. Long-press on your background to enter jiggle mode — where your apps are all shaking.
2. Tap Edit in the top left corner of your screen.
3. Tap Customize.
Tapping Customize opens a new menu.
4. Tap the two different-sized squares in the top-right corner of the new menu that appears at the bottom of your screen.
Tapping the little and big squares change the size of your apps.
Your app icons will grow and the labels beneath them will disappear. This looks much cleaner to me: I don’t plan on displaying app labels ever again.
If you don’t like this, follow the above steps again and tap the different sized squares once more. The apps will revert to their normal size and the labels will reappear.
How to change the color of your app icons and widgets
1. Long-press on your background to enter jiggle mode — where your apps are shaking.
2. Tap Edit in the top left corner of your screen.
3. Tap Customize.
Then you can choose between Default, Dark, Clear and Tinted app icons and widgets.
These options can change the color of your apps and widgets.
If you choose Dark from this top menu, Apple’s first-party apps, like Messages, Safari and more, will now have an almost-black background. This change applies to first-party Apple apps and some third-party apps, like the YouTube and Bluesky apps. Other third-party apps, like Instagram and Snapchat, are unchanged.
Choosing Dark will also darken your background, which could reduce the amount of power your iPhone uses and extend your battery life.
Clear will turn your app icons and widgets almost translucent. If you choose Clear, you can also give your app icons and widgets a Light or Dark tint. There’s also an Auto option which will automatically change the tint based on whether light or dark mode is active. These options appear across the bottom of the Customize menu. Personally, Clear with a Dark tint is my new favorite color scheme.
The Clear option also has Light, Dark and Auto tint options.
If you choose Tinted, you can turn your apps and widgets every other color. Tapping Tinted causes a gradient scale to appear at the bottom of the Customize menu. You can adjust the scale until you get just the right hue. You can also tap the eyedropper icon near the bottom right corner of the menu to select a color from your background that matches your icons more closely. That way you’re not moving the sliders and getting frustrated because the colors aren’t quite matching — a total hypothetical, I swear.
Tinted lets you turn your apps and widgets almost any color.
How to arrange apps around your home screen
Arranging apps on your home screen is the same process as before. You can either enter jiggle mode by long-pressing on a blank portion of your background and then dragging apps where you want them to go, or press and drag an app to a new location.
You can arrange apps in a pattern or any formation you want.
You can place all your apps near the bottom of your screen, have them frame your screen or arrange them in any other number of patterns. Because I’m right-handed, I placed most of my apps on the right side of my screen so I can easily tap them without fear of dropping my phone. This also makes it easy to ensure you see your background if it’s a picture of a loved one or a pet.
The grid is still present, so you can’t place apps on top of each other or too close together. If you enlarge your apps, there will be a sizable gap between your dock across the bottom of your screen and the lowest row of the grid. It looks like it’s big enough to fit another app icon, but you can’t — I tried to no avail.
For more on iOS 26, here’s my review of the OS, how to reduce the Liquid Glass effects in the update and all the new ringtones on your iPhone. You can also check out our iOS 26 cheat sheet.
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