There are a lot of really useful things you can do on an iPhone, and some that are just plain cool. Shortcuts can be both, but today we’re focusing on the latter. Using shortcuts to personalise the Home Screen on your iPhone.
Personalising your iPhone Home Screen using Shortcuts instead of a third-party data-trawling app is the easiest, and safest, way to get a pretty phone.
Using Shortcuts to personalise your iPhone
To start, you’ll need to head over to Shortcuts app that comes preinstalled on your iPhone.
Once opened, hit the + (plus) icon at the top right of your screen. Select the big + Add Action button and if yours opens up to the Categories tab, below that you’ll see a list of actions. Tap on Scripting.
Select Open App.
Tap on the blue App text that’s next to the Open prompt and select which of your iPhone apps you want this Shortcut to open.
Now it’s time to give it a name and an icon. Tap the arrow down button next to the app/app action you’ve selected (up the top) and you’ll have a few options to choose from. The first is Rename. Selecting this will allow you to rename the app. Once you’ve given it a new name, you can then add an icon.
You can use the icon of the app you’re using, or the iPhone Shortcuts icon in a handful of colours, with a tonne of monochrome symbols spanning cars to paw prints also available to choose from. Or you can go pro mode and head over to the internet and find a pic yourself (or use one from your Gallery).
Just be mindful that the image you choose is going to be a teeny tiny square, so the less detail the better. Whatever image you go with for your Shortcut, make sure it’s saved in your iPhone Gallery.
Now, go back to the iPhone Shortcuts app, press that arrow down once again, and select Add to Home Screen. You’ll see two sections here: Preview and Home Screen Name and Icon. Tap the icon under Home Screen Name and Icon and select Choose Photo.
Select your pic, then crop your image to fit in the square and hit Choose. Hit Add up the top right and like magic (or some sweet iPhone tech), your Shortcut will now be on your Home Screen.
Repeat this process however many times you want, with whatever apps you want shortcuts for, then to finish it off, change your iPhone wallpaper by navigating to Settings > Wallpaper >+ Add New Wallpaper. If you need to rearrange your apps press down on an app, select Edit Home Screen and while the app is wobbling, you can move it around your phone. We put all of the OG Home Screen apps into a folder so we can still access them easily. Just be mindful you won’t get notification badges on your shortcut apps as they are merely masks that open the real apps.
Here’s what we started with versus what we ended up with.
Perfect for a yellow iPhone we thought.