The fastest way to rearrange your iPhone home screen
To change your home screen on iPhone, press and hold any app icon until a menu appears, then tap Edit Home Screen. From there you can drag icons to new positions, delete them from the home screen (they stay in your App Library), or create new pages by dragging an icon to the right edge. When you're done, press the back arrow or tap outside the menu to save your changes.
This method works on iPhone X and newer. If you have an older iPhone running iOS 12 or earlier, you'll use the older edit mode: press and hold an icon until all icons start jiggling, then drag them around. The process is the same, just without the menu overlay.
You can also change which apps appear on your home screen by opening the App Library (swipe to your last home screen page), finding an app, pressing and holding it, and selecting Add to Home Screen. This lets you keep your home screen minimal and organized by only showing the apps you use most.
Key Takeaways
- Press and hold any app icon and tap Edit Home Screen to enter rearrangement mode on iPhone X and newer models.
- Drag icons anywhere on the current page or to the right edge to create a new page, and drag them down to remove them from the home screen entirely.
- The App Library automatically organizes all your apps by category, so removing apps from your home screen doesn't delete them.
- You can customize which pages appear by swiping left on the page dots at the bottom and tapping the minus sign next to pages you want to hide.
Changing your home screen layout with widgets and app stacks
Beyond moving individual app icons, you can add widgets to your home screen to display live information without opening an app. Press and hold an empty space on your home screen, tap the plus button in the top left, choose an app, select a widget size, and tap Add Widget. Weather, calendar, reminders, and news widgets are common choices.
You can also create app stacks — a single icon that holds multiple apps and shows one at a time. Drag one app icon directly on top of another, and iOS will group them together. Tap the stack to cycle through the apps inside, or swipe up and down to flip between them. This saves space on your home screen while keeping related apps together.
Customizing the look of your home screen with themes and icon styles
iPhone doesn't have built-in themes, but you can change the appearance of your home screen by using custom app icons through the Shortcuts app. Open Shortcuts, tap the plus button, select Add Action, search for Open App, choose the app you want, and then tap the three dots. Select Add to Home Screen, give it a custom name, and tap the icon preview to choose a new image from your photos or the web.
This method lets you create a cohesive look by using matching icon designs across your home screen. Many designers share free icon sets online that you can read and use. Keep in mind that tapping these custom icons opens the Shortcuts app first before launching the real app — it's a fraction of a second slower than tapping the original icon.
Another visual option is to change your iPhone's wallpaper, which affects both the lock screen and home screen background. Go to Settings > Wallpaper > Add New Wallpaper, choose from built-in collections or your photo library, and select whether to explore it to the lock screen, home screen, or both.
Organizing your home screen into pages and folders
Create folders to group related apps together and reduce clutter. Press and hold an app icon, tap Edit Home Screen, then drag one app directly onto another. iOS will create a folder and suggest a category name — you can keep the suggestion or type your own. Drag more apps into the folder by dropping them on top of it.
You can also organize by creating multiple home screen pages. While in edit mode, drag an app to the right edge of your screen to move it to the next page, or swipe left on the page dots at the bottom to see all your pages at once. Tap the minus sign next to any page to hide it from your home screen rotation — hidden pages still exist and you can unhide them later.
Hiding and showing entire home screen pages
If you have pages you don't use often, you can hide them so they don't appear when you swipe. Enter edit mode by pressing and holding any app, then look at the page dots at the bottom of your screen. Swipe left to see all pages, then tap the minus button next to any page you want to hide. The page and all its apps remain on your phone — they're just not visible when you swipe through your home screens.
To unhide a page, go back into edit mode, swipe left on the page dots, and tap the plus button next to the hidden page. This is useful if you want to keep work apps, games, or other categories separate but not cluttering your daily swipe path.
Using the App Library to keep your home screen clean
The App Library is a built-in feature that automatically organizes all your apps by category — Productivity, Entertainment, Health, and so on. It appears as the last page when you swipe all the way right on your home screen. You can remove apps from your home screen entirely and still find them in the App Library without deleting them from your phone.
To use it effectively, remove apps you don't use daily from your home screen and keep only your most-used apps visible. Search for any app by swiping down on your home screen and typing its name — this is often faster than swiping through pages. The App Library also shows a small grid of your most recently used apps from each category, so you can tap that grid to see everything in that category at once.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I undo changes to my home screen?
No, there's no undo button. However, you can manually move apps back to where they were, or you can restore your iPhone from a backup if you made major changes and want to revert. For most situations, just rearrange your apps again to how you prefer them.
What happens to my apps if I remove them from the home screen?
Removing an app from your home screen does not delete it from your iPhone. The app stays on your phone and appears in the App Library. You can add it back to your home screen anytime by finding it in the App Library and pressing and holding it, then selecting Add to Home Screen.
Can I have different home screen layouts on my lock screen?
Starting with iOS 16, you can customize your lock screen separately from your home screen. Press and hold your lock screen to edit it, and you can add widgets and change the clock style. Your home screen layout stays independent of these lock screen changes.
Why is my home screen rearrangement mode not working?
Make sure you're pressing and holding long enough — usually about one second. If the menu doesn't appear, your iPhone may be running an older iOS version. Check Settings > General > Software Update to see if an update is available. On very old iPhones, you may need to use the older jiggle-mode edit instead.
Can I set different home screens for different times of day?
Not directly, but you can create multiple home screen pages and use Focus modes to show or hide specific pages. Set up a Focus in Settings > Focus, then customize which home screen pages appear when that Focus is active. This lets you have a work layout during business hours and a personal layout in the evening.