Customizing your iPhone’s home screen started last year when iOS 14 introduced the ability to hide widgets and default app icons in favor of your own cool, customized icons. But iOS 15 adds a new dimension to home screen customization with Focus modes, which provide a quick and easy way to hide and reveal groups of home screens with a single tap. Here’s how to do this:
Focus modes are ostensibly an extension of Apple’s Do Not Disturb mode – the point behind the feature is that you can link certain home screens to different use cases; a normal home screen with social media apps and music widgets that you can use in and out of the office.
But because Focus mods let you choose home screens, you can also use them to quickly switch between a list of custom themed icons you’ve created with matching shortcuts and widgets, without having to manually hide all your homepages each time.
To use the new feature, you’ll first need to set up a Focus mod – luckily we’ve got a guide on how to do that here.
You should also set your themed home screen with widgets and custom icons, which you can learn how to do here.
Once you’ve done all that, you’ll want to go to Settings > Focus, select the specific Focus you want to use to trigger your custom home screen or screens. Then select the Home Screen menu, toggle the “Special Pages” switch and select the home pages you want to appear when you enable Focus mode. Then all you have to do is turn on your Focus mode and your phone will change into your perfect themed style whenever you want.
However, if you’re really willing to go the extra mile, you can take advantage of Shortcuts and create an automation that changes your iOS wallpaper every time you turn on that Focus mode. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work great – at least with the current iOS 15 beta – but it’s an option for those who want to tinker with Shortcuts.
All of these is is Of course, it’s still a lot of effort for a themed home screen. But unless Apple gives up and gives us better customization tools next year, the new tricks in iOS 15 are the best way to make your home screen look stylish.
