Remember how iOS used to be criticized for its rigid, one-size-fits-all approach to design and layout With the speed of introducing customization features to Iphone software, Apple is doing its best to make you forget about everything

Recent iOS updates allow you to remove Apple's built-in apps, add widgets to the home screen, or change the look of the home screen iOS 18 contributes to this customization push with a tool that leaves the look of your home screen entirely up to you There are no more neatly placed apps or grids of icons with colors that can't be changed Now you fine-tune all that in the name of caan that the home screen layout provides your idea of the organization

This is a bold new direction for ios, but not necessarily difficult for iPhone users to master From what we've seen in Apple's demo of features, customizing your home screen works a lot like dropping it into a widget or re-ordering the app Now- just use more options

When the public beta of iOS18 arrives, we will learn more For now, here's what we know about Apple's WWDC2024keynote and the home page customization features introduced in iOS18 based on its iOS18preview page:

By far, the biggest interface change iOS18 brings to your iPhone is the ability to adjust your interface as you like On my iPhone12, my home screen can be a 4x6 grid of app icons

It will change when I upgrade to iOS18 which will allow me to place those apps and widgets anywhere on the home screen Maybe I have a specific photo that serves as my home screen wallpaper — instead of the app covering that photo, I can also group the apps at the bottom of the screen to make them more easily accessible — useful on a large screen iPhone — or use them all 11]

There's one thing that looks like it's been fixed on every demo screen that Apple has shown off so far: 1 No matter how else you set up your home screen, there is always a dock of four apps at the bottom (However, you still have the option to optimize apps that live in that dock)

In addition to changing where your apps can live on your home screen, iOS18 has also added Apple's Dark option that allows you to adjust their appearance, it does for your screen that Dark mode does for your screen — Darken the white part of the icon You can switch between brightness and darkness manually, or you can set it to darken as the sun sets

The dark appearance of the icon initially applies to built-in apps, but perhaps third-party app developers can also add a tint of color by using the slider to adjust both the color and intensity, as well as choosing color change support for their icons

The Color Picker tool allows you to adjust shades to complement or reflect your home page wallpaper

Based on the screenshots that Apple made available on the customized home screen, adjusting the tint does not seem to allow individual changes to the color of a particular app icon for grouping purposes as it is an all-or-nothing affair

Look carefully at the tool to adjust the color of the app icon, you will see additional buttons labeled Small and large These 2 buttons affect the size of the app's icons and widgets, and with the large buttons you can easily find them

Since this resizing tool is in the same control panel that adjusts the color and tint, we have to make the app icon and widget size uniform

The new home screen customization feature allows you to customize your profile by controlling who gets to open the app It also includes features that enhance your privacy — or you should make sure they are installed on your phone

iOS18 allows you to select apps that require authentication at startup You can request a Face ID or passcode to access the app (If you have a phone with Touch ID like the iPhone SE, you can also use that methodIf the app is safe, things like search results and notifications will not pop up with obvious sight, either

If that's not secure enough, iOS18 gives you the option to hide your app from public view Instead of appearing on the home screen, it will go to a locked hidden folder that only you can access 

For example, there is a group of health-related apps, including apps for health insurance companies, PPO, and drugstores that provide prescriptions In my Home iOS18, that level of privacy is added to my home screen as I don't want anyone to stumble across information related to those apps as well as I don't know that they are even there

This last feature is related to the Ios18 control Center overhaul — it's a separate profile for another time, but I wanted to mention it here because it contains information that appears on the lock screen of your iPhone 

As you know, there are 2 controls at the bottom of the lock screen - 1 to quickly start the camera and turn on the flashlight on the iPhone You can customize the rest of your iPhone's lock screen, but at least until you install iOS18, these 2 controls will remain constant

In iOS18, you can replace flashlight and camera controls with a variety of options, whether it's a quick link to start a calculator or a quick link to call a note screen to tap an idea If you have a phone with an action button (just iPhone15Pro and iPhone15Pro Max), there are rumors that iPhone16 is adding this feature right now, but you can use it via the button