Ever wanted to give your Home Screen a real makeover? Thanks to the Shortcuts app, it’s easy to set custom icons for all your apps – but finding a cohesive batch of graphics that match your chosen aesthetic isn’t always so simple.
If you’re handy with editing or illustration apps (and have plenty of time on your hands) you could design your own icons from scratch. But considering the install process is already quite time-consuming, we figure most people would prefer to grab a ready-made icon pack that suits their aesthetic. Here’s how to find one and set it up.
How to set custom icons
A quick reminder if you’re new to the world of iOS theming: to set a custom app icon, open the Shortcuts app and press + to make a new shortcut. Add the Open App action with your chosen app selected. Hit the Share button at the bottom of the screen and choose Add to Home Screen.
Here, you can type the name of the app and tap the default icon to choose a new one. Choose a photo to crop down to a square, then hit Add and you’re all set! Repeat for as many apps as you need and return to the Home Screen to see your handiwork.
Now you know how to make the shortcuts, let’s get back to sourcing the images we need.
Finding a theme pack
There are tons of ways to approach this, and a quick App Store search will uncover plenty of apps with built-in theming solutions. Problem is, most of them overcomplicate things and charge pricey subscription fees to boot.
To our mind, that money is better spent purchasing individual icon packs direct from the artists who make them. You’ll find hundreds of high-quality themed collections with an Etsy search for ‘iOS icons’ including this colorful set that we’ve used in our example screenshots. We also found some nice clean themes on Gumroad for just $2.
There are plenty of free icon packs out there too, though it might take a bit more digging to find a decent set. The r/iOSthemes subreddit is a good place to look.
Wherever you get your theme, it will almost certainly be provided as a .zip file. Download it in Safari and it should find its way to the Files app under iCloud Drive > Downloads.
Tap the file once to ‘unzip’ it, and open the folder that appears to see your images. If you only need a few icons, open one and hit Share > Save Image to add it to the Photos app. If you need all or most of them, instead press the … button in the top right and choose Select. Tap or drag or choose as many as you like and you’ll be able to save them all at once. Phew!
Now when you go to set up a shortcut as described above, you’ll find all the right images ready and waiting in your camera roll!
Finishing touches
Some icons will be listed as transparent, but there’s a bit of extra work to make that claim true. iOS doesn’t allow true transparent icons, but you can fake the effect by combining the icon files with your chosen wallpaper in an app like Icon.Luxe.
You can also use a custom widget-maker to design Home Screen widgets that suit the aesthetic. Our favorite is Widgetsmith, used below, which even in its free incarnation allows users to use custom background colors and photos.
With all that done, sit back and admire your new Home Screen! This level of customization isn’t easy, but it can be quite addictive once you get started – and such a unique look is sure to impress your friends. Enjoy!