How to customize your iPhone Home Screen for iOS 26’s Liquid Glass

6 months ago 63

The motorboat of Apple’s latest operating system, iOS 26, introduced a new plan connection called Liquid Glass. The interface makeover, 1 of Apple’s largest since the displacement from skeumorphic to level plan successful 2013, adds a translucent, glass-like worldly to Apple’s software. This is utilized crossed iOS elements, similar buttons, sliders, media controls, switches, notifications, tab bars, app sidebars, and successful strategy experiences similar the Control Center, Home Screen, Lock Screen, and more.

The plan itself is inspired by mixed-reality (AR/VR) devices similar the Apple Vision Pro and is perchance gearing up for a aboriginal wherever the OS does, successful fact, person to tally connected astute glasses — similar those Apple is reportedly building.

In the meantime, the changes unfastened the doorway to caller ways to customize your astir idiosyncratic device, your iPhone, with enactment for things similar wide icons, glassy widgets, a glassy typeface for the Lock Screen with 3D photos, and more.

Below is simply a postulation of tips and tricks that volition assistance you get started customizing your iPhone to instrumentality vantage of the caller Liquid Glass design.

Liquid Glass icons

One of the biggest adjustments you tin marque to your Home Screen is to alteration your icons’ style. Ever since the instauration of iOS 14, which introduced widgets, users person been actively personalizing their Home Screen with customized icons. Typically, this was done by creating a shortcut to a fixed app using Apple’s Shortcuts app, past uploading the customized icon determination earlier adding the shortcut to your Home Screen. Several iOS theming apps were besides updated to instrumentality vantage of this functionality, which made the tedious process a spot easier by allowing you to prime which apps you wanted to customize successful bulk. These were past installed for you via a downloadable profile.

For those who didn’t privation to leap done arsenic galore hoops, iOS 18 added the ability to alteration each your icons to a caller colour strategy via a built-in tool. Plus, you could set your icons to show somewhat larger by removing the substance statement underneath.

With iOS 26, customization has been updated again with icons that tin look arsenic airy oregon acheronian glass, tinted glass, oregon adjacent arsenic wide icons.

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Screenshot

While determination were immoderate user complaints astir tinted icons successful iOS 18, the diagnostic has improved with the Liquid Glass design; the tint feels much subtle now. You tin besides usage the eyedropper instrumentality to prime the nonstop colour from your wallpaper to lucifer your icons and set sliders to further tweak the colour oregon its opacity.

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If you’d alternatively conscionable skip this customization but inactive privation a glassy look, you tin simply acceptable your icons to “Clear” instead.

How to usage it: Press and clasp connected your Home Screen and pat connected “Customize” to participate customization mode. Tap the assorted options to prime whether you privation a light, dark, oregon automatically adjusting background, ample oregon tiny icons, and whether you privation your icons to look arsenic dark, clear, tinted, oregon with their default colors. Tap connected your Home Screen again erstwhile your customizations are complete.

Matched icons

If you spell caseless oregon usage a wide telephone case, you mightiness similar the caller enactment to lucifer your iPhone’s icons to your instrumentality oregon case. This is disposable done the “matched icons” diagnostic successful iOS 26.

iOS 26 knows your iPhone’s SKU, which contains accusation that informs it of your exemplary and color. But if you privation to lucifer your case, you person to usage the authoritative Apple MagSafe cases.

How to usage it: To lucifer your icons to your phone, property and clasp connected your iPhone Home Screen to spell into jiggle mode, pat “Edit,” “Customize,” past “Tinted.” Underneath the colour and opacity sliders, pat the fastener that looks similar a small iPhone connected the acold left. To lucifer the lawsuit instead, property the adjacent fastener to the right.

Home surface wallpaper and layout

Your Lock Screen wallpaper and your Home Screen wallpaper don’t person to match, giving you a wide assortment of options for Home Screen customizations. But earlier you spell to acceptable your canine oregon feline arsenic your inheritance again, instrumentality a infinitesimal to browse the web for immoderate glassier inspirations.

Pinterest remains a bully assets for escaped ideas, wherever you tin look for wallpapers with hunt presumption similar “Liquid Glass wallpaper” oregon “iOS 26 wallpaper,” for instance.

Another enactment is to usage third-party iOS theming apps. There are tons of these connected the App Store, but beryllium warned that these apps are astir ever subscription-based oregon overloaded with ads, if there’s a escaped version. If you’re caller to this world, immoderate that I regularly instrumentality to (and adjacent wage for astatine times) see Brass, Color Themes, Screenkit, Themify, Wallaroo, and Widgetsmith.

Home surface customization is besides a bully clip to enactment a favourite artist. Many artists connection wallpaper packs for merchantability done their Patreon oregon beforehand their downloads connected their societal media. Searching for “iOS wallpaper” and related presumption connected sites similar X and Threads could constituent you to immoderate ideas. Similarly, users often amusement disconnected their designs connected ocular mediums similar Instagram and TikTok. (I’m presently obsessed with these bright, colorful, and watery flower prints!)

Remember besides that iOS 18 introduced a mode to enactment your icons and widgets anyplace you privation connected the Home Screen, allowing you to permission blank spaces successful betwixt them. This tin beryllium useful, particularly if you don’t privation to obscure immoderate portion of your wallpaper. However, the icons volition inactive beryllium locked to an invisible grid strategy to support the surface looking orderly.

How to usage it: To alteration your wallpaper, property and clasp connected your Home Screen until the icons jiggle, past pat “Edit,” and “Edit Wallpaper” from the paper that appears. You tin besides alteration your wallpaper from its ain conception wrong the settings app. To determination icons, property and clasp connected your Home Screen until they wiggle, past resistance and driblet them wherever you privation them to sit.

While widgets themselves aren’t new, iOS 26 gives them a glassy look-and-feel, which whitethorn animate you to springiness your Home Screen a makeover.

Instead of utilizing your apps’ built-in widgets, present glassified, you tin besides crook to third-party resources to find widgets. Brass, Color Themes, Screenkit, Themify, Widgetsmith, and Launcher are among those connected my iPhone.

I besides similar the widget apps from the developer MD Studio — particularly the 1 that puts a small vinyl grounds player connected your Home Screen. For a much modern look, Not Boring besides makes its ain alternatives to the iPhone’s default apps, similar those for the camera, calculator, weather, timer, and more, which travel with their ain widgets. Music app Airbuds has a amusive widget arsenic well.

A much precocious fashionable prime is Dynamic-Lyrics, which puts unrecorded lyrics connected your Lock Screen, Dynamic Island, oregon Home Screen.

You tin besides take to make and customize widgets of your ain with Widgy. The app is 1 of the bigger resources retired determination for widget customization, too the different theming apps linked above. With Widgy, anyone, adjacent those without plan skills, tin make their ain customized widget by adding elements, changing the colors and effects, connecting a information source, and more.

You tin besides browse done widgets others person made for inspiration and past import them for your ain use.

Some designers besides merchantability Widgy widget collections from their ain websites. This tin get a small trickier due to the fact that of the other steps involved, but the extremity effect tin beryllium worthy the effort. For example, I conscionable bought this “glass glossy” Widgy widget collection to adhd immoderate unsocial customized widgets to my Home Screen. But unless you’re acquainted with however theming apps work, it could beryllium a spot intimidating to get started.

How to use: First, you’ll privation to download the purchased widget zip record to the Apple Files folder connected your iPhone oregon your iCloud Drive. (This mightiness beryllium easier to bash if you marque the acquisition from your iPhone.) Tap to unzip the app if it’s compressed.

Open the Widgy app you’ve already installed from the App Store and spell to the archetypal tab, “Create.” Here you’ll pat “Import,” past the enactment to “import .widgy File from Files.” (Unless you saved the record successful the Widgy folder that’s created connected your phone, you’ll person to browse to wherever you primitively downloaded the files.) After you find the record oregon folder you privation to import, pat connected it to propulsion it into Widgy.

From Widgy’s “Manage” tab, you’ll pat connected the disposable widgets included with your download. To person it lucifer your wallpaper, pat “Set up Transparency” and upload screenshots of your wallpaper successful airy and acheronian mode snapped from a blank leafage of the Home Screen itself. Each widget tin past beryllium further customized successful this section. When you pat connected an idiosyncratic widget to customize it, you’ll besides person to acceptable up the widget presumption (meaning wherever connected the Home Screen it sits).

After the widget is saved, you adhd it to your Home Screen utilizing the mean process: pat and clasp Home Screen to participate jiggle mode, pat “Edit,” “Add Widget,” Widgy, and past scroll done the options and prime the widget you created.

Liquid Glass Lock Screen

On the iPhone’s Lock Screen, Liquid Glass volition present amusement the clip successful a glassy, San Francisco typeface that volition dynamically accommodate its weight, width, and tallness depending connected the representation connected the surface and your notifications to support your photo’s taxable successful view.

However, the champion portion whitethorn beryllium the Lock Screen’s caller Spatial Scenes, which springiness your iPhone’s wallpaper a 3D effect. This diagnostic leverages machine imaginativeness techniques moving connected a neural motor to crook your 2D photos into a 3D image. You tin bash this connected older pictures oregon those taken connected different cameras, excessively — you don’t request to bargain the caller iPhone 17 to instrumentality vantage of the addition.

How to usage it: Press and clasp connected the Lock Screen, past pat Customize. Browse your photos until you find an representation you similar for your wallpaper. After adding it, marque definite you pat connected the caller Spatial Scene fastener to alteration the 3D effect. This is connected the close broadside of the Lock Screen’s customization page. The fastener to the close of it besides lets you further configure your Lock Screen’s wallpaper settings, similar having it shuffle done antithetic photos connected a docket oregon with a tap.

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