How to Change App Icons on iPhone
The short answer is that you cannot, not really, and every themed Home Screen you have seen works around that. Here is what iOS actually allows, what it costs you, and how Wallby makes the part it can make.
Free on the App Store · iPhone, iOS 17.0 or later
What is really happening
iOS gives no app permission to replace another app's icon. The only mechanism available to anyone is a shortcut: you create a shortcut whose single action is Open App, add it to the Home Screen, and give that Home Screen bookmark a picture of your choosing.
The result looks like a re themed app. It is a bookmark that opens the app.
The cost, stated up front. A Home Screen shortcut does not show notification badges. The unread count stays on the original app icon, which you have probably tucked away in the App Library. That is an iOS limitation, and it is the reason many people theme half a Home Screen and keep the real icons for messages and mail.
The steps
- In Wallby, open the icon studio, pick the app you are making an icon for, choose a symbol and a gradient, and tap Save icon to Photos.
- Open Shortcuts, tap the plus button, add the Open App action and choose the app.
- Tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
- Tap the icon image, choose Photo, and pick the icon Wallby just saved. Name it, then tap Add.
- Touch and hold the original app icon and choose Remove from Home Screen. It stays in the App Library and in search.
Wallby has a button that opens Shortcuts for you at step two, which saves a bit of app switching when you are doing a whole screen at once.
What Wallby draws
A 512 pixel rounded square
Gradient background, a symbol centred on top in a tint you choose, rendered on the device and saved to Photos at full size.
Eighteen symbols
Camera, music note, play, message, envelope, compass, photo, heart, star, sparkles, moon, sun, leaf, bolt, cloud, game controller, cart and book.
Eight ready made targets
Instagram, TikTok, Spotify, YouTube, WhatsApp, Mail, Safari and Photos, each with a suggested symbol. Anything else works the same way through Shortcuts.
Pick the gradient from the same palette family as your widgets and wallpaper and the screen holds together. The colors are on the aesthetic widgets page, and the backgrounds are on the wallpaper maker page.
Doing a whole Home Screen without regretting it
- Theme the apps you open on purpose, not the ones that notify you. Badges disappear on shortcuts.
- Do one page at a time. Fifteen icons is about an hour, and it is dull work.
- Keep the symbol set small. Three or four symbols across a screen looks deliberate, eighteen looks like a sticker sheet.
- Match the gradient to your wallpaper, not to the app's brand color. That is what makes a screen look designed.
- Remember you can undo all of it in a minute by deleting the shortcuts and pulling the real apps back out of the App Library.
App icon questions
Can an app really not change another app's icon?
No. iOS gives an app no way to replace the icon of a different app. An app can change its own alternate icon, and that is the whole of it. Everything you have seen on a themed Home Screen is a Shortcuts bookmark with a custom image.
Do custom icons show notification badges?
No. A Home Screen shortcut is a bookmark, not the app, so the red badge stays on the original app icon. If unread counts matter to you, keep the real icon for those apps and theme the rest.
What size are the icons Wallby makes?
512 by 512 pixels, drawn as a rounded square with a gradient background and a symbol on top, then saved to your Photos so Shortcuts can use it.
Which apps can I make an icon for?
Any app you can pick in the Shortcuts Open App action. Wallby offers eight ready made targets, Instagram, TikTok, Spotify, YouTube, WhatsApp, Mail, Safari and Photos, with a suggested symbol for each, and you can build an icon for anything else the same way.
Is the app icon feature free?
Yes, including all eighteen symbols. The free version adds a small Wallby mark to what you save, and Wallby Pro removes it.
Make the icons, we will show you the rest
Free on the App Store, iOS 17.0 or later. All eighteen symbols are in the free version.