I then had to repeat the re-design via Shortcuts with every app I wanted on my home screen, which took me no less than two hours. Honestly this is all far too much as I’m reliving it, and I hate that I feel so compelled to write about it, but here we are.Īt this point in the process, I had the app in hand using the icon pack I purchased, downloaded, copied and pasted into Photos, and then effectively re-designed in Shortcuts to do with what I pleased. Once I’ve chosen Instagram, I had to tap three little blue lines in the upper right corner, choose “Add to Home Screen,” rename the app, pick the photo that synced from iCloud to accompany the app, and, finally, tap “Add.” GOODNESS. Let’s say I wanted to customize the Instagram app.
Never have I ever become so familiarized with an app in the way I have become with Shortcuts during this process, and I am certain that I’ve barely scratched the surface of everything Shortcuts can actually do.īasically, I had to open Shortcuts, hit the + sign in the upper right-hand corner, tap “Add Action,” type “open app” in the search bar, then tap “Open App” under “Scripting,” THEN choose from a list of apps I have on my phone in order to customize one of them. Use Shortcuts to re-design appsĮnter: the absolute epicenter of my frustration with Apple home screen customization. Make sure you have iCloud syncing on, or you won’t be able to access the icons you chose on your phone.
Android 16 zip#
You have to cross-reference the apps you already have on your phone with the matching icons from the downloaded zip folders, and then you have to copy and paste those icons into Photos. I didn’t anticipate this step being so laborious, but wow was it ever. Once I had access to the icon and widget folders, I of course had to choose which icons and widgets I wanted out of the hundreds available in the icon pack – I genuinely had no idea how bad it would get.
Android 16 download zip#
Using instructions from the Etsy seller, I had to download zip files and PDFs, drag them to my desktop, open them, and then open the folders that the zip file created, all of which was extremely tedious. This step was where things started to hurt, even if at first, it was only a little. I spent about five minutes online before deciding on this icon pack for $6, and I got to work.
Android 16 free#
You can find free icon packs, grab icon packs from Etsy, or create your own icon pack (though I hear this is difficult), and there are, quite literally, tens of thousands of packs to choose from. It’s fun for a minute to browse through options, but I quickly lost interest and patience it’s kind of like the difference in shopping at the mall versus one independently-owned boutique. Choose an icon packįirst of all, the sheer number of icon packs available online is overwhelming. Here’s what I had to do, which I will never do again, because it took far too long. Using this article as my reference – and also its author, my colleague Michael Potuck – I slowly became familiar with the Shortcuts app, Widgetsmith, and everything in between that is required to create a custom home screen aesthetic on my iPhone. That all changed this week when I tried my hand at customizing my phone‘s home screen using two icon packs I purchased from Etsy.
Android 16 android#
Sure, I can “edit” the home screen’s layout with apps, widgets, and folders for organization, but I’ve never been able to make it more me – you know, how Android users can make their phones more them. I’m currently on my seventh iPhone, and I’ve always accepted that my phone’s home screen simply looks how it looks. The only cell phones I’ve ever owned have been a Nokia (shoutout to Snake, my first love), a Blackberry, and an iPhone, none of which I’ve ever fully customized. With iOS 16 coming in September, there’s an opportunity for Apple to give consumers needed autonomy. Apple doesn’t offer truly individualized customization of its products or interfaces to its users, and if anyone wants to customize the look of their Apple products – specifically their home screens – they’re in for A Time.