Upcoming iOS 18 to offer more customizable home screen

AppleInsider

Among a slew of new features reported to be coming to iOS 18 later this year, the home screen is said to be more customizable for users.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that Apple will make it easier for users to customize the home screen in iOS 18, but doesn't go into any details on the rumored feature. Apple has previously said that it believes that iOS 18 will be its biggest update to the iPhone ever.

The new version is widely expected to debut Apple's efforts in upgraded machine learning, neural networks, and AI as fully integrated across the OS.

Apple's iOS 18 update is expected to bring new accessibility features. Prime amongst them is an expansion of the existing "Conversation Boost" feature in AirPods Pro into a more complete "hearing aid" type technology.

The overall design of iOS 18 is expected to get an update too. It is unlikely to take many cues from visionOS, the OS used in the Apple Vision Pro.

Included programs, such as whiteboard app Freeform, are also said to be gaining new features.

Rumor Score: Likely

Read on AppleInsider

xed

I miss being able to move home screens and icons around from inside macOS. Previously this was done within the iTunes app. Doing this on an iPhone can be a laborious task since you can't move the entire screen, only a single icon at a time. If something akin to this arrives I'd be happy.

cheesefreeze

Xed said:

I miss being able to move home screens and icons around from inside macOS. Previously this was done within the iTunes app. Doing this on an iPhone can be a laborious task since you can't move the entire screen, only a single icon at a time. If something akin to this arrives I'd be happy.

Tell me about it! And if Apple would like to keep this editing capability on the phone instead of needing a computer, I suggest they create some sort of a split screen function where you can resize the 'split' area. The top would then be some sort of a folder/app clipboard where you can drag items into, then on the bottom you'd navigate to the destination area and move the items out of the clipboard. Something like that. Because right now the slightest mistake in interaction screws up the layout...

Ps: technically you can select multiple items. Tap/hold an icon until it wiggles, keep your finger on it, while using a second finger to tap and add items to the stack. It's the moving around different screens that's the shitty part...

nicholasm

@Xed @CheeseFreeze ;

You can arrange entire screens, in any order, on iPhone.

Super easy.

1. Hold down on the row of dots at the bottom
   All of the apps toggle with a -sign
2. Next press and release the row of dots. All of the screens allow you to re-arrange
   
3. Drag and drop the screens or uncheck if you want to hide them

edited March 2024

xed

NicholasM said:

@Xed @CheeseFreeze ;

You can arrange entire screens, in any order, on iPhone.

Super easy.

1. Hold down on the row of dots at the bottom
   All of the apps toggle with a -sign
2. Next press and release the row of dots. All of the screens allow you to re-arrange
   
3. Drag and drop the screens or uncheck if you want to hide them

Neat! Thanks.

You can also un/check a home screen, which is somethingI’ve wanted for a long time. I have certain apps that I only use when doing a specific task.

PS: You could prank someone by hiding all but one of their home screens.

citpeks

Xed said:

I miss being able to move home screens and icons around from inside macOS. Previously this was done within the iTunes app. Doing this on an iPhone can be a laborious task since you can't move the entire screen, only a single icon at a time. If something akin to this arrives I'd be happy.

That was also my first thought.

Moving even a single icon around on the device is more fraught than it should be.  Sometimes not unlike trying to control a greased skateboard on a bed of ice, slipping and sliding around almost uncontrollably as it knocks the other things out of the way.

And why is the "Done" button hidden when inside a folder?

jbdragon

I'm not really one to waste a lot of time trying to customize my phone.  I have better things to do.  I just want it to work.  Will any of the new features I use?  Who knows.  I guess Apple has to keep on doing changes for better or worse.

fastasleep

It's too bad Apple Configurator is such a disaster. Just checked it out again to try moving some apps around and applied changes, which nuked my widget stack on my Home Screen. Not a huge deal as I could easily replace it, but it's always been a buggy mess when it should've always been the easy to use alternative to managing app layouts since it was removed from iTunes.