According to new reports, iPhone users will get a lot more freedom to customize the look of their home screens in iOS 18.
The upcoming iOS update is “internally considered the biggest iOS update since the original iPhone,” Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported, and iPhone owners should prepare to see “a new home screen that’s more customizable” along with “a host of AI tools.”
As any iPhone user knows, when you download or move apps around on your phone, they fall into place equidistant from the surrounding icons.
But iOS 18 may allow iPhone users to “create empty spaces, rows and columns between app icons,” MacRumors reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, though the grid that sits beneath the current app layout on your iPhone may remain to ensure equal spacing otherwise .
If Apple ships those changes, the added customization sounds like it would allow you to have a row or two of apps, a big blank space below them, and then multiple rows of apps below, as one example layout.
Android users have of course had more personalization options for the appearance of their home screen apps for years, but this would be a first for iPhone owners.
New AI features “that help manage your daily life” are expected to be the biggest change in iOS 18, Gurman reported. Apple and Google are also in talks to bring Google’s Gemini AI model to the iPhone, it was previously reported. Apple has also recently discussed possible licensing with OpenAI, according to Gurman’s report.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Apple is expected to announce the iOS 18 update at its annual WWDC event in June, with an expected public release in September.