To change the color of your app icons on an iPhone running iOS 18 or later, touch and hold an empty part of the Home Screen until the apps jiggle, tap Edit in the top-left corner, then tap Customize. Choose Tinted and drag the color slider to give every icon the same hue. On iOS 26 and later you’ll also see a Clear glass look.
That setting changes all your icons at once. iOS has no built-in way to recolor just one app. For a single app, the workaround is a custom Home Screen icon made in the Shortcuts app, which we cover further down.
What are your options for changing app colors?
| Method | What it changes | Needs |
|---|---|---|
| Tinted icons | Every icon and widget, to one color you pick | iOS 18 or later |
| Dark icons | Icons get dark backgrounds | iOS 18 or later |
| Clear icons | See-through glass icons that pick up your wallpaper | iOS 26 or later |
| Shortcuts custom icon | One app, using any image you choose | Any recent iOS; opens through Shortcuts |
| The app’s own icon options | That app’s icon, from a set the developer offers | Only some apps |
How to change all app icon colors (Tinted icons)
- Go to your Home Screen and touch and hold an empty spot until the apps start to jiggle.
- Tap Edit in the top-left corner.
- Tap Customize.
- In the panel at the bottom, tap Tinted.
- Drag the top slider to pick a color, and the lower slider to make it brighter or darker.
- Tap an empty area of the Home Screen to close the panel, then tap Done.
Your icons and widgets now show in the color you picked. Apple’s own apps and many popular third-party apps are designed for this. An app whose developer hasn’t made a tinted version gets an automatic tint, which can look a little flat.
Tip: tap the eyedropper next to the sliders to pull a color straight from your wallpaper, so the icons match it.
Use the Dark or Clear look instead
In the same Customize panel:
- Dark puts icons on dark backgrounds. It looks best with a dark wallpaper and is easier on the eyes at night.
- Clear (iOS 26 and later) turns icons into frosted glass so your wallpaper shows through. Widgets become more see-through too.
- On iOS 26 and later, Clear and Tinted each have light and dark versions, and you can let the iPhone switch automatically with Light and Dark Mode.
To undo any of this, go back to Customize and choose Default (called Light or Automatic on iOS 18).
The same panel also has an icon size option. Large icons hide the app names under each icon.
How to change the color of just one app icon
Apple doesn’t let you recolor a single app’s real icon. What you can do is make a Home Screen shortcut that opens the app and use any picture you like as its icon, such as a solid color or a recolored version of the logo.
Before you start, save the image you want to use to Photos or Files. A square image works best.
- Open the Shortcuts app and tap the + button.
- Tap Search Actions (or Add Action), type Open App, and tap it.
- Tap the blue word App in the action and choose the app you want to restyle.
- Tap the name at the top of the screen to rename the shortcut, for example to the app’s name.
- Tap the Share button (or the arrow next to the shortcut’s name) and choose Add to Home Screen.
- Tap the small icon preview, then choose Choose Photo or Choose File and pick your image.
- Tap Add. The new icon appears on your Home Screen.
Now hide the original so you don’t see two icons: touch and hold it, tap Remove App, then Remove from Home Screen. The app stays in your App Library, so nothing is deleted. Our guide to moving and arranging apps helps you put the new icon where the old one was.
Note: shortcut icons can’t show notification badges, and on some iOS versions tapping one may briefly flash the Shortcuts app before your app opens.
Check whether the app has its own icon colors
Some apps let you pick an alternative icon from inside the app, often under a setting called App Icon or Appearance. This changes the real icon, keeps badges working, and takes a few seconds, so it’s worth looking in the app’s settings before building a shortcut.
Want to change other colors on your iPhone?
App icons are only part of the look. You can also:
- Change the color of the Lock Screen clock to match your new icons.
- Pick a new wallpaper or build a fresh setup with our guide to customizing your iPhone Lock Screen.
- Restyle your Home Screen further by changing or resizing widgets.
Common questions
Why don’t I see the Customize option?
It needs iOS 18 or later. Check Settings > General > Software Update. Also make sure you touched an empty spot, not an app, so the whole Home Screen enters edit mode.
Can I make each app a different color?
Not with Tinted, which applies one color to everything. Different colors per app are only possible with custom Shortcuts icons.
Does changing icon colors affect battery life?
No meaningful difference. Dark icons with a dark wallpaper and Dark Mode can use a little less power on iPhones with OLED screens, but the icons alone won’t change your battery life noticeably.
Matthew Roberts is the founder and editor of ARS Digitech. He started the site to answer the iPhone questions his friends and family kept asking him, and it has grown into a library of iPhone and iOS how-to guides. Matthew writes and maintains every tutorial on the site, checking steps and menu names against Apple’s official support documentation and updating guides when an iOS release moves a setting.