How to change my icons on iphone

(Pocket-lint) - Let's say a holiday is coming up - like, Halloween or Christmas - and you want your iPhone to look all spooky or festive. To achieve that, did you know you can do more than change your wallpaper to an image of a ghost or a witch or Santa with his reindeer?

Read: How to customise your iPhone lock screen

There was once a time when Apple wouldn't let its users customise the home screen. But the company is much more lenient these days. You can completely control the aesthetic of an iPhone, like by changing your home screen app icons to custom ones and by using widgets. If you want to get super spicy, you can even add a video clip of something to your lock screen. It's simple to do. 

To get started, you need an iPhone, of course, and it needs to be running the latest version of iOS.

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How to make a video wallpaper and add it to your iPhone lock screen

You should probably also change your iPhone's home screen to finish the aesthetic makeover you're trying to achieve. Don't know how? Apple has a support page with more information, but here's the quick version: Go to Settings on your iPhone, tap Wallpaper, then select Add New Wallpaper. Easy peasy.

Those of you who want to go a step further should also change your lock screen to something more on theme. You could even go all out and use a video wallpaper (or "Live Photo", as Apple calls them). These are GIF-like wallpapers that move when you press down on the screen. Neat, right?

Check out our guide to learn more: How to turn any video into a live wallpaper for your iPhone lock screen

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START A NEW LOCK SCREEN LAYOUT

How to customise the font, widgets, and look of your iPhone lock screen

A major new feature with iOS 16 is the ability to make custom Lock Screens. You can add widgets, fonts, photos, wallpapers, and more. Pocket-lint has entire guide dedicated to showing you - step by step - how to customize your iPhone lock screen. But the TL;DR version of that guide is detailed below.

1. Long-press on your lock screen.
2. Tap the blue + icon in the bottom right corner to add get a new wallpaper. Or choose Customize to edit your current one.
   • You can swipe (right to left) to add a new lock screen layout to save and reuse too. 
3. Anyway, let's say want a new wallpaper.
   • Select the blue + icon and choose a wallpaper from the options.
   • You will see suggested photos, photo shuffle, emoji, weather, astronomy, color, and featured wallpapers
4. When you select or customise a wallpaper, you can crop it, change its filter, change font and color, and add a widget.
   • Select pinch to crop to resize the wallpaper
   • You can also tap the ... icon to add a depth effect.
   • Select Add Widgets to add a widget. You will see birthdays, calendar, battery, and more. Tap to choose one.
   • If you want to change the font and color of your font on the lock screen, hold down on the clock and pick your preference.
5. When done, tap Add in the corner.
   • You can choose to set as a wallpaper pair (it will change your home screen). 
   • Or you can customise your home screen.
   • If you select customise, you will have the option to change its color, gradient, photos, and blur.
6. Set it when you're done and that's it!

Is there an app or service that will do all this for you?

Yes, actually. Search "home screen" in the app store. You will see apps like Brass, Aesthetic Kit, and Themify that allow you to quickly and easily change your home screen and lock screen aesthetic. This guide explains how to do it yourself. Doing it yourself gives you way more customisation options and allows you to be more creative. But if you don't want to put too much time or effort into it, use an app.

Want more help?

Pocket-lint also has a roundup of some of the best iPhone wallpapers.

Writing by Maggie Tillman.

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