Summary
- Your phone is the most personal computer you own and deserving of customization.
- You can use launchers, icon packs, and widgets to change how your home screen looks and works.
- A lot of options are available for free, but you might have to pay to get truly new features.
It feels cliché to say, but only because it’s never been more true: Your phone is the most personal computer you own. Not only is it so portable that you in some sense “wear” it, either in a pocket or a bag, but it’s the first (and in some cases only) place people go to find information, communicate, and create. Making your phone feel like your own should make it feel better to use — or at the very least, it will help it feel deserving of the large role it plays in your life.
Not every smartphone offers the same level of customization, but both Android and iOS have gotten better over the years in terms of how easy they make it to change how your phone looks and works ( iOS has taken huge strides), but if customization is what matters most to you, you’re still going to get the most flexibility out of an Android phone. So, in an effort to have the coolest or at least the most “me” Pixel out there, here are some of the steps I take to customize my phone’s home screen, that should be applicable to anyone else with a modern Android phone.
It’s time for Android launcher-like customization to make its way to iOS and Windows
Android launchers offer a powerful way to change the layout of your home screen, and competing operating systems should embrace similar functionality.
1 Set a new wallpaper
It’s the visual hiding behind everything
One of the simplest ways to customize your phone’s home screen is to change its wallpaper. As the background that lives behind basically everything that is an open app, it’s only natural that a wallpaper can really change the vibe of your phone. You can long-press on your Android phone’s current home screen should open up a menu that lets you quickly change things around.
In terms of where your wallpaper should come from, Google has pretty built-in options, but if you use a custom launcher, you can get a bunch of new wallpapers that way, too. There are also plenty of wallpaper apps that might have something you want. What matters is that you’re happy with what you pick.
I always use these free phone wallpaper apps to decorate my homescreen
You don’t have to spend $50 a year to get some slick wallpapers for your smartphone or tablet.
2 Install a new launcher
A launcher can fundamentally change how your phone behaves
Smart Launcher 6
Smart Launcher 6 is a custom launcher for Android phones that lets you place apps and widgets wherever you want and resize them to any shape or size you need.
Your launcher governs how your home screen and app drawer work. Using a new one can make for one of the most visible changes you can make to your phone. The Pixel launcher on Google’s first-party hardware has enough features for most people to both build a home screen that looks how they want, with the right number of features that will make their phone more useful than distracting, too.
It’s worth admitting that new launchers can have a learning curve as you get up to speed…
If you have something specific in mind, Niagra Launcher is a great option for a more minimalistic approach, with a scrollable list of apps rather than a grid. I’ve been experimenting with Smart Launcher 6 because of its system of adaptive widgets that can become any size (Smart Launcher describes this as a “Fluid Grid” system) and organizational features in the app drawer that automatically sort your apps based on their use-case. It’s worth admitting that new launchers can have a learning curve as you get up to speed, and, unfortunately, most of them require a premium subscription or the purchase of a lifetime license to access all of their features. Still, a launcher will change your home screen the fastest out of all the options in this list.
Why these 9 Android launchers hold a permanent spot on my phone
Making my app drawer and screen more customizable and organized, these launchers continue to be a real screen saver.
3 Swap in new icons
Change how apps look from the outside
Icon Pack Studio
Icon Pack Studio is an app icon creation tool that lets you change the look, color, and shape of your apps directly on your phone.
Once you have a launcher and wallpaper you like, you might want to consider swapping out your app icons, which, next to widgets, take up the majority of space on your home screen. Most major third-party launchers support icon packs. You download them as a simple app from the Play Store, then apply them to your launcher from inside the icon app itself.
The developers behind Smart Launcher have an icon-making app called Icon Pack Studio that makes it relatively straightforward to create custom packs, or even just tweak the existing options you already have on your phone. It can take a while, so make sure you’re willing to set aside some time to get your icons looking how you want them to. For a pre-built option, Retro Mode — Neon by Moertel Pixel Art offers fun, pixelated app icons that I thought looked pretty good. Just be aware they don’t have an icon for every app you might want.
5:36
7 ways to customize your iPhone home screen aesthetic
Here’s how to create the perfect iPhone home screen aesthetic, step by step, through the use of custom icons, widgets, wallpapers, and more.
You don’t need to open an app to get things done
Widgets are Android’s way of letting you access features and information from your apps without having to actually open them. Glanceable information that’s also interactive. By default, there are limits on the size of widgets. In most cases, you’ll be stuck with the sizes app developers provide unless you have a launcher that gives you more flexibility or includes its own widgets.
It depends on the developer, but most big apps offer some kind of widget which means you might be able to get away with using a widget rather than opening an app for most of the things you do on your phone. The other option is to download an app like KWGT that lets you create your own widgets — even ones that can tap into your Google account and access your information. Again, it requires experimentation, but I’ve found that the more you can use widgets, the better you’ll feel using your phone.
These 5 Android widgets level-up my Android phone
I always add these widgets first when I get a new Android phone and use them to the fullest.
5 Take inspiration from someone else
The best designs are often based on pre-existing work
Customizing your home screen in this way requires you to have a lot of opinions and to make a lot of creative choices. If at any point that feels overwhelming, you might want to base your setup on someone else’s. You can look through subreddits like r/Homescreens, but some launchers and app icon makers will also let you see other people’s designs, and even use them as a jumping off point.
A more restrained, simple home screen will be easier to make look good than something flashy.
Starting off with some work done for you is one of the best ways to use KWGT, for example, but it’s good practice in general, too. Taking inspiration from someone else’s home screen can ultimately help you avoid making something ugly, which you probably want.
This is how I customize iOS 18’s iPhone Control Center to be more efficient
iOS 18 now lets users better curate their Control Center to make it truly their own.
Make your phone your own
It’s true that it’s easy to make something that looks bad. There are so many options and so many ways to tweak how your home screen looks, that you’re bound to make something that’s not “good design.” But at least it will be yours. As long as you keep functionality in mind and consider how you actually want to use your smartphone, you’ll be okay.
If the list above doesn’t satisfy your desire for gadget customization, Pocket-lint has covered a unique tool for tweaking Samsung’s Galaxy devices and plenty of different ways you can make Windows a lot better.
