iOS 18: New icon customizations are a step out of the box

Apple has released iOS 18 with new app icon customizations and it is a step out of the limited thinking in this segment. When it comes to personalization, Apple is a slow learner but recent iOS versions slowly changed this approach.

Take iOS 17 for example, when you move an app icon to a new location, it can roam freely on the screen but once you release it (tap and hold), the icon jumps to an empty space and sits beneath or on the side of an available icon slot.

iOS 18 breaks these constraints and lets you place app icons on any available slot on the screen.

iOS 18 icons (Source – Apple)

Visibility and Appearance

There are some new changes in the visibility settings. You can now increase the size of these app icons as it will stretch the icons from all sides.

However, iOS 18 takes app icon personalization to a new level with a major change in appearance.  You can change the color to Light, Dark, Automatic, and Tinted.

The light mode keeps the color normal with its original themes and colors. Dark mode turns icons to dark colors while keeping the UI elements in light mode. Automatic sets the icon theme based on the theme mode. When you enable the dark mode, it coats the entire UI and icons to dark.

The next option allows you to set a tinted layer above the app icon. It appears sort of blended into the selected tone including the icon and the background shape. Interestingly, you can also adjust the intensity of the color to make it look brighter or darker based on the selection.

Furthermore, the new enhancements will facilitate this personalization feature with an eye dropper tool. With that, you can pick any color from the home screen wallpaper to match app icons.

A step out of the box?

To compare, Android already has these features of managing the screen layout, app icon sizes, and color customization for years. And iOS has brought new changes to reflect some advancements that compete with its rival operating system.

So, it could be considered as a step out of the box for the Cupertino-based tech giant.