How to Customize iPhone for Free

One of the most popular complaints leveled against iPhones is that they cannot be customized to the same extent as Android devices. While this may have been a valid critique a few years ago, Apple has provided numerous methods to customize your iPhone. In this tutorial, I will show you how to customize iPhone for free.

Outline

Changing the layout of the home screen is one of the most simple ways to customize your iPhone home screen. With iOS 14, you may reorganize your Home Screen thanks to the redesigned App Library and more interactive widgets.

The App Library allows you to delete apps from the Home screen without actually deleting them from your iPhone. This helps to eliminate clutter on the home screen.

To delete an app from your Home screen, tap and hold the app icon until the fast action option appears. Tap Remove App > Remove from Home Screen.

1. New iPhone Widgets

Before iOS 14, widgets were only accessible by swiping left to right on the iPhone Home screen. iOS 14 allows you to add more dynamic widgets to the Home screen for the first time.
To add widgets to the home screen, press and hold anywhere on the screen until you receive haptic feedback.
Next, hit the plus button in the upper left corner of the screen. Here you can view all of the widgets that may be added to the Home screen.

2. Customizing Control Center

Control Center appears when you swipe down from the upper right corner of the screen (iPhones with Face ID) or up from the bottom (iPhones with Face ID). Since iOS 11, iPhone owners have been allowed to personalize several of the controls in Control Center.
To discover the controls you can add to Control Center, go to Settings and then Control Center. You’ll see a list of controls that are already in Control Center, as well as a list of controls that you can create.
To delete a control from Control Center, tap the red minus button to the left of it. To add a control to Control Center, simply tap the green plus button.

3. Change your iPhone wallpaper

Your iPhone automatically selects a wallpaper for your lock screen and home screen. Changing the default photo to something more personal is an excellent way to personalize your iPhone.
To change your iPhone wallpaper, go to Settings and tap Wallpaper.
Then hit Choose a New Wallpaper. From here, you may select a photo or live photo from your camera roll, as well as the wallpaper that came preloaded on your iPhone. Certain wallpapers, such as dynamic and live wallpapers, cause movement on the lock screen or home screen.
Once you’ve picked your favorite wallpaper, press Set in the lower right corner of the screen. You can set it as the wallpaper for the lock screen, the home screen, or both.

4. Change the iPhone App Icons

One of the most popular Siri shortcuts lets you alter the icons for your iPhone apps. While configuring Siri Shortcuts may appear hard, this one is pretty simple.
Open Shortcuts and press the + button in the upper right corner of the screen. This is how you create a new shortcut.
Then, tap Add Action. Use the search bar to locate the Open App action.
Tap Choose in the action to select the program you wish to open and then alter its icon.
To proceed to the Details page, tap the blue and white three-dot button. Tap Add to Home Screen to have this shortcut show on the home screen.
You can name the Shortcut here (you should usually keep the same name as the program) and add an icon for it. Tap Add in the upper right corner of the window to add the Shortcut to your Home screen.
When you go to the Home screen, you’ll notice your Shortcut with the new app icon! Tap the icon to ensure that the Shortcut works.

The Theme App for iPhone

1. Photo Widget

Photo Widget is a nice balance of simplicity and cuteness. If you’re weary of seeing the same colors, check these new quirky cartoons to bring some joy and fantasy back into your life. Photo Widget provides an excellent mix of paid and free themes.

It has themes with beautiful animal creatures looking back at you. They are there to make you happy every time you visit your Home Screen. To remove advertising, you must have a Premium Subscription. Non-Premium customers see location-based advertising when using the Photo Widget.

2. WidgetBox

The appeal of WidgetBox is that it does not overwhelm you with too many options. The program includes roughly ten traditional themes, including Dark, Retro, and monochrome options like Yellow. You can also make your own themes.

The patterns are clean and basic, so they should complement any iPhone wallpaper you select. You may also modify your keyboard and iPhone charging animation. Most of WidgetBox’s features are only available to premium subscribers. Users have observed navigational lags while using WidgetBox.

3. Icon Themer

Icon Themer curates themes based primarily on holidays and major events. It has hand sketches and solid colors. Most of them give off a nice aura. It offers fewer theme possibilities than popular apps. However, if you dislike having to sift through a plethora of eye-catching color schemes in order to locate that one simple design, Themer will suffice.

If the ready-made themes do not meet your needs, Icon Themer offers a wide selection of icons from which you can construct your own. Themer shares user information through advertising.

The Free Theme Apps for iPhone

1. Widgetsmith

Widgetsmith, with over 500,000 ratings on the Apple Store, is a popular software for customizing icons. Its ease of use allows you to express your creativity without having to be a tech expert.

Widgetsmith gives you choice over how you want to personalize your Home Screen. With a vast range of configurable templates and widgets, you’re sure to obtain the appearance you want. It includes customizable gradient wallpaper and widgets that may be scheduled to appear based on the rules you choose. Widgetsmith, a free theme software, shares user information with data curators.

2. ScreenKit

ScreenKit includes 5000+ app icons, 500+ widgets, and 500+ aesthetic themes and wallpapers, allowing you to efficiently customize your iPhone home screen. When you initially run ScreenKit, it prompts you to select your preferred styles. It will then generate a personalized list of themes based on your choices.

ScreenKit provides classic themes like minimalist and solid color. If you enjoy certain series or novels, you’ll find some interesting possibilities, such as Harry Potter. ScreenKit may share user information with marketers.

How to customize iPhone Lock Screen

Lock Screen customization has been available since iOS 16, allowing you to personalize your iPhone and iPad Lock Screen with wallpapers, fonts, and widgets. Here’s how to make the most of this feature:

Create a new lock screen

Your lock screen is the first point of contact between you and your smartphone, so make sure it’s something you love using. Apple allows you to build as many lock screens as you like, and you may switch between them whenever you want. This also makes it simple to experiment with new designs.

To make a new lock screen, go to “Settings,” then “Wallpaper.”

Then tap “Add New Wallpaper.”

Alternatively, press and hold your lock screen till you see “customize,” then hit the “+” icon.

Similarly, to eliminate the lock screen, touch and hold it until you see “Customize.” Then, swipe up and tap the red trash icon at the bottom of the screen.

Change your wallpaper.

The wallpaper is the major theme of your lock screen, forming the foundation of its beauty. When you create a new lock screen, you will first choose a background.

In the wallpaper menu, you can select a photo, an emoji, a color, or even weather and astronomy. Once selected, you can make changes to the wallpaper, such as filters, depth effects, and zoom.

Filters can help you improve the look of your wallpaper, and the depth effect lets you change the dimensional arrangement of your lock screen, bringing graphics to the foreground or background of the clock and other widgets.

You can also select a Photo Shuffle, which uses a slideshow of your preferred images as the background. You can customize the shuffle frequency to hourly, daily, on lock, or tap.

The wallpaper menu also displays highlighted wallpapers and recommends additional themes, providing you with a greater range of possibilities. To modify an existing one, go to “Settings,” then “Wallpapers.” Then, swipe right to view and select the Lock Screen you wish to alter. Once done, hit “Customize,” which will take you to the Lock Screen you chose.

From there, tap the icon in the bottom left corner of the Lock Screen to set a new background, such as a photo, emoji, or color.

To change your wallpaper from one form to another, you must first create a new Lock Screen. For example, if you wish to change your background from an emoji to a photo, you cannot do so by editing an existing Lock Screen.

Once you’ve chosen your lock screen wallpaper, you must determine whether or not you want a matching Home Screen, as you can have different Lock Screen and Home Screen wallpapers.

Change Your Preferred Clock Style

Apple’s Lock Screen personalization goes beyond wallpapers; you can also change the design of your clock. After the wallpaper, the clock is the next focal point of your device’s Lock Screen, taking up a significant amount of space. Once your wallpaper is complete, you will be able to personalize the clock.

Tap the clock to see what options are open to you. A “Font & Color” menu will open, displaying several look options, such as fonts, colors, and sizes. A default color is typically chosen from the wallpaper’s colors, but you can alter it by selecting a new one from the color wheel.

Add Some Widgets

The Lock Screen on your iPhone and iPad is designed to be both practical and visually appealing. That being said, widgets are an excellent method to improve the functionality of your Lock Screen. You can choose from a range of widgets, including battery meters, reminders, calendars, and weather. You can also include widgets from third-party applications that you commonly use, giving you rapid access to those apps.

You can only have two to four widgets on an iPhone, depending on their size. However, iPad owners can switch their screen layout and add extra widgets.

There are numerous effective iPhone Lock Screen widgets; whatever one you choose will be determined by your needs and preferences. Mail, Spotify, and Snapchat are examples of commonly used widgets. Some widgets allow you to access functionality without even launching the associated app.

Change Your Lock Screen Notifications

Another way to customize your Lock Screen is to select how your notifications appear. It is critical to add a notification design that you are satisfied with. Apple knows this and provides three notification-style alternatives for your lock screen.

To alter your lock screen notification settings, go to “Settings,” then “Notifications,” and select Count, Stack, or List. When you initially wake your device, “Count” displays a simple count, whereas “Stack” groups comparable notifications into an expanded list. Instead, “List” displays each notification individually.

You may also restrict specific apps from receiving lock screen alerts, which would otherwise wake up your iPhone or iPad by lighting up the screen. To do this, go to “Settings,” then “Notifications,” and choose the app you wish to prevent from receiving lock screen notifications. Once selected, go to Alerts and disable the Lock Screen.