The customization of iOS, or rather, the non-customization of iOS has been one of the main reasons why many Android users have never made the jump to Apple. However, this recently seems to have been alleviated, at least in terms of applications, since from iOS 14 we can change the icons of all the applications that we want and customize the screen of our iPhone much more. Keep reading because we tell you how you can do it very easily.
Apple won’t let you do it natively
There are some applications that allow us to change your icon, but with certain restrictions. For example, the productivity application “Todoist” allows us to change the color of the icon from the app itself, offering us a great variety. One of the largest applications worldwide such as Instagram, celebrating its anniversary, allowed us for a period of time to choose the icon of the app from a series of options that they provided us.
However, outside of these aforementioned options that the applications themselves can give us, in iOS we cannot change the icon of the apps that we want as such and achieve the desired customization that many users demand. But beware, that natively it cannot be done does not mean that we cannot achieve it in some way, and this is where the Shortcuts application comes into play.
Necessary requirements for it
After many years in which Apple aesthetically hardly incorporated changes in its operating system dedicated to the iPhone in 2020, a new possibility arrived with iOS 14. The famous widgets were not the only novelty that we could count on when it came to customizing the aesthetics of our device, since through the application of Shortcuts the Cupertino company offered us the possibility of creating shortcuts through which to open an application of our choice and, above all, to be able to put the image we want as an icon to said shortcut to later add it to the home screen of our iPhone.
Therefore the necessary requirement is to have that iOS 14 or a later version of the operating system . We remember that the devices compatible with these software versions are the following, so if you have a previous one, it will not work for you:
- iPhone 6s and 6s Plus
- iPhone SE (1st generation)
- iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
- iPhone 8 and 8 Plus
- iPhone X
- iPhone XS and XS Max
- iPhone XR
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max
- iPhone SE (2nd generation)
- iPhone 12 and 12 mini
- iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max
It should be noted that also with iPadOS 14 and later it is possible. In this case we find the following compatible tablets:
- iPad (5th generation)
- iPad (6th generation)
- iPad (7th generation)
- iPad (8th generation)
- iPad mini 4
- iPad mini (5th generation)
- iPad Air 2
- iPad Air (3rd generation)
- iPad Air (4th generation)
- iPad Pro (any version)
Change icons with Shortcuts
The process is really simple and the steps to follow are done in just a few minutes. First of all, we recommend that before starting the process, or perhaps, as the first point of this, you have downloaded in your photo library the image that you want to set as the icon of the specific application. With this ready, what you have to do is have the Shortcuts application, remember that if you deleted it you can download it in the App Store.
- Open the Shortcuts app.
- Click on the “+” button in the upper right to start creating a new shortcut.
- Select “Add action” and in the search engine type “Open App” and choose that action.
- Where it says “Select”, press and select the app you want to change.
- Click on the icon with the three dots located at the top right.
- Give the app a name, usually the original, so it looks like it came with the new serial icon.
- At this point you should do a two in one, since while you add your app to the home screen, you can also change the icon. To do this, click on “Add to home screen”, to later rename it as you want and, above all, click on the icon and click on the “Select photo” option.
- Choose the image that you have in the photo library and that will be the icon of the app.
- Now you just have to click on “Add” and you will have the application with the icon you have chosen.
Our recommendation now to avoid having two icons of the same application is that you transfer the original to the Applications Library.
Disadvantages of this process
What you have really done is not change the icon to the application, but you have created a shortcut with the icon that we have wanted, which what it does is open the app after redirecting it with Shortcuts. The application itself will continue to have the same icon as always, only that from now on you will access the application through the icon you created, which entails a disadvantage, which is more or less disadvantage depending on the version of iOS 14 that you have installed on your iPhone.
Until iOS 14.2 when we accessed an application through its shortcut, the system first went to the shortcuts application, opened the shortcut and later the application was opened. It only took a few seconds to wait, but it was getting really annoying.
However, this disadvantage is less of a disadvantage in iOS 14.3 and later since in this version and its successive ones, every time you enter an application through a shortcut, the application will be opened directly and the only thing you will have to suffer is a banner at the top of the screen that takes a couple of seconds to disappear.