iOS 14 has radically changed the way how the Home screen functions on the iPhone. While you can continue to use the old-fashioned icon grids, the ability to insert widgets right onto the Home screen has breathed new life into Apple’s premium smartphone. The inclusion of the new App Library, combined with the means to hide entire Home screen pages, also provides a degree of customization never seen before. That said, there are various apps that can help you customize the iPhone’s Home screen even more.
Let’s take a look at ten of the best apps that you should seriously consider installing right now.
Apps to Customize iPhone’s Home Screen
1. Widgetsmith
Widgetsmith has already become incredibly popular during the very short time since its release. You may have already heard of it — or even have it installed — on your iPhone. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Widgetsmith lets you create your very own widgets from scratch.
You start by picking a widget size — small, medium, or large. Then, you get down to customizing it by picking a category, such as time, date, calendar, reminders, health & activity, and so on — this will require you to provide Widgetsmith the permission to access data from the relevant app on your iPhone though.
Follow by picking a font type, tint color, background color, and border color. Finally, head into the widgets gallery on your iPhone, and you can find your freshly-minted widget listed underneath Widgetsmith. You can continue creating and adding as many widgets as you want. The app also lets you craft custom widgets by adding your own images and text.
Widgetsmith comes with an annual and monthly subscription ($19.99/$1.99) that lets you unlock weather-related widgets. However, the free version is all you need to go crazy on your iPhone’s Home screen.
2. Color Widgets
Color Widgets is the perfect alternative if you find Widgetsmith too complicated. The app comes with a dizzying array of colorful pre-made widgets that are super-easy to customize. Just pick a size, change the font style and color, pick a background color, and away you go. You can also set your own background pictures should you want.
All widgets also feature a battery icon with a percentage reading, which is perfect for iPhones with Face ID. However, you can choose to disable that by hopping into the Settings pane of the app.
If you like Color Widgets, you can upgrade to the PRO version with a one-time payment of $3.99, which will unlock additional styles, designs, and pre-made widgets.
3. Widgeridoo
Widgeridoo takes custom widget creation to the extreme with a block-based design approach. You have blocks for loads of stuff such as text, images, health data, birthdays, calendar events, music, JSON URLs, and more.
Start creating a widget, and you can stack blocks in any order that you want. Each block comes with its own customization screen — for example, the Text block lets you change the font size, background/foreground color, and alignment (left, center, or right). Almost all blocks allow you to set your own background image as well.
Widgeridoo can be rather overwhelming, but it’s a great app that lets you pack in a ton of information into a single widget. Combine that with iOS 14’s widget stacking functionality, and you can have literally everything you want in just a few Widgeridoo widgets.
However, you must upgrade to the Pro version of Widgeridoo (costs $3.99) to do anything besides adding more than a single widget to the Home screen.
4. Widget Wizard
Widget Wizard works similarly to Widgetsmith and allows you to easily build your own widgets from scratch. You can add calendar events, reminders, health stats (such as steps, distance, cycling distance, etc.), clocks, and so on, and then customize them with accent and background colors.
It also functions like Widgeridoo to a certain extent, allowing you to create widget combos (a single widget featuring multiple types of data). Widgets can also feature a ‘Stat Bar,’ which consists of details such as the battery percentage and select health stats.
However, you must pay $1.99 upfront to start using Widget Wizard. The app also features in-app purchases, but they are for donation purposes only.
5. Photo Widget
As its name implies, Photo Widget is perfect if your only goal is to add widgets with your own photos. Pick a widget size, add up to six photos, and then tack it to the Home screen via the widgets gallery. Tapping on a photo will automatically open it in the Photos app. It’s perfect if you want to sprinkle a few images to go with the wallpaper.
Photo Widget has been around the block for years (where you could use it in Today View), but with iOS 14, using it just makes more sense since the native Photo widget does not let you select specific photos. The catch — it costs you $0.99 upfront.
6. Photobox Widget
Photobox Widget is a completely free app that lets you create small, medium, and large-sized photo widgets. The interface looks rather dated and confusing but gets easier once you’ve spent a few minutes using it.
Basically, you start stacking images one after another — you can also crop images to fit any particular widget size while adding them. Photobox widget also lets you add an overlay message and position it in any corner of the widget.
Once you’ve finished doing that, head over to the widgets gallery on your iPhone and add your desired Photobox Widget to the Home screen or Today View. The widget will then cycle through your images and pick one (complete with the overlay message) once every 10 minutes.
Admittedly, Photobox Widget is rather basic, but it’s a valuable addition to your toolbox if you want to seriously customize your Home screen along with an app such as Widgetsmith.
7. Clock Widget: Custom Clock App
At the moment, there are loads of clock widget apps on the App Store, but Clock Widget: Custom Clock App (now that’s a generic name!) caught our eye with its stunning collection of pre-made and customizable clock widgets.
The built-in templates (abstract, 3D, nature, etc.) look terrific, but they do require you to upgrade to the Pro version.
However, the set of customizable widgets that are included within the app are completely free, and lets you add your own background images. There are three types to choose from — basic, digital, and minimal. After picking one, you can either change the text color or add your own background, allowing you to merge them with any iPhone wallpaper.
Sure — you can do this with the other widget-creation apps in this list, but Clock Widget: Custom Clock App makes the whole process effortless.
8. Ermine
If you want to add a calendar widget that can gel with any iPhone background out there, then Ermine is your pick.
Dive into the Ermine Settings, pick an option to change the widget color, and then select any of the preset colors or use the background color picker to select any color that you want. You can also add hex codes to nail down the exact colors. To add to that, the background color picker lets you modify the color opacity as well.
Ermine lets you insert your calendar widgets in the usual small, medium, and large sizes. The app also features complete integration with the Calendars app on your iPhone, so expect to stay in sync with upcoming events at all times.
9. Shortcuts
You don’t have to look too far to grab Apple’s own Shortcuts app since its baked right into your iPhone itself — if you can’t find it, you can download it here. But how can the Shortcuts app help you customize your iPhone? It lets you literally change any icon on your Home screen.
Basically, you create a simple shortcut that lets you open an installed app on your iPhone. After adding the shortcut to your Home screen, you can change the shortcut icon to any image of your choosing. For the exact process, check out our step-by-step guide.
This feature has been available on the iPhone since iOS 12, but iOS 14 has given ample reason to just go ballistic. Thanks to the new Home screen widgets and the App Library (where you can hide original app icons easily), people have literally transformed entire Home screens in amazing ways. Hand-drawn doodles or glaring neon signs, anyone?
10. Pinterest
You read that right — Pinterest. Yes — Pinterest doesn’t help you customize the Home screen directly, but it will surely help you come up with all sorts for trending wallpapers, app covers, and organization concepts.
The app has enjoyed a massive surge in popularity ever since the release of iOS 14, so it should provide you with loads of ideas for the time being. Start searching for ‘iOS 14 home screen ideas’ to get started.
Start Customizing
Install a few apps from the list above (Widgetsmith, Color Widgets, and Shortcuts, for example), and you do some serious customizations to the Home screen on your iPhone. So, know of any other apps that can help? Also, don’t forget to check out some cool iPhone Home screen ideas for inspiration. Drop-in a comment below and let us know.
