How to Change Your Home Screen on Any Device

Your home screen is the first thing you see every time you unlock your phone, tablet, or computer. Whether you want a cleaner layout, a fresh look, or a more functional setup, changing it is one of the most personal and practical customizations available. The process varies significantly depending on your operating system, device type, and how deeply you want to customize.

What "Changing Your Home Screen" Actually Means

The term covers a wide range of changes. At the basic end, you might rearrange app icons or swap a wallpaper. At the deeper end, you might replace the entire launcher on Android, set up widget-heavy dashboards, or restructure your app library completely.

The key distinction across platforms:

Wallpaper and background — cosmetic; available on virtually every device
App icon layout — rearranging, hiding, or grouping apps into folders
Widgets — live information blocks (weather, calendar, battery) placed directly on the screen
Launcher replacement — Android-specific; replaces the entire home screen interface with a third-party app
Default app pages — on some systems, setting which page appears first when you unlock

Understanding which of these you want to change determines how you'll approach it.

How to Change Your Home Screen on iPhone (iOS)

Apple gives users a structured but meaningful set of options.

Wallpaper: Go to Settings → Wallpaper → Add New Wallpaper. You can use Apple's built-in options, your own photos, or live wallpapers. On iOS 16 and later, lock screen and home screen wallpapers are linked but can be set separately.

Rearranging apps: Long-press any app icon until they enter "jiggle mode." Drag apps to reorder them or drag one onto another to create a folder. Tap Done when finished.

Widgets: Long-press an empty space on the home screen and tap the + button in the top corner. Choose a widget, pick a size, and place it. Widgets on iOS are updated live but cannot overlap with app icons.

App Library: Introduced in iOS 14, the App Library automatically organizes all your apps into categories at the far right of your home screen pages. You can hide entire home screen pages you don't use by long-pressing the page dots at the bottom and deselecting pages.

Custom app icons: iOS doesn't natively allow icon reskinning, but you can use the Shortcuts app to create shortcuts with custom images. The trade-off is that tapping these shortcuts opens the Shortcuts app briefly before launching the target app.

How to Change Your Home Screen on Android 📱

Android offers the most flexibility of any major mobile OS — often more than users realize.

Wallpaper: Long-press an empty space on your home screen and tap Wallpapers (wording varies by manufacturer). Many Android skins — including Samsung One UI, Pixel's stock launcher, and others — let you set separate wallpapers for the home screen and lock screen.

Widgets: Long-press an empty space and tap Widgets. Browse by app, then drag the widget to your preferred location. Android widgets can often be resized by long-pressing them after placement.

Launcher replacement: This is Android's major differentiator. A launcher is the app that controls your home screen, app drawer, and overall navigation experience. You can install third-party launchers — such as Nova Launcher, Microsoft Launcher, or others — directly from the Play Store. Once installed, set it as the default when prompted. Different launchers offer different grid sizes, icon packs, gesture controls, and layout options.

Icon packs: Many launchers support icon packs, downloadable sets of custom icons that replace the default look of every app on your screen simultaneously.

Feature	iOS	Stock Android	Android (Custom Launcher)
Custom wallpaper	✅	✅	✅
Widgets on home screen	✅	✅	✅
Replace launcher	❌	✅	✅
Icon pack support	Limited	Limited	Broad
Hide home screen pages	✅	Varies	Varies

How to Change Your Home Screen on Windows and macOS 🖥️

On desktop operating systems, the concept of a "home screen" maps to the desktop background and the arrangement of pinned apps, taskbar items, and shortcuts.

Windows: Right-click the desktop and select Personalize to change your wallpaper, theme, accent colors, and widget panel. You can also pin apps to the taskbar or Start menu and adjust which folders appear in Start.

macOS: Right-click the desktop and choose Change Wallpaper, or go to System Settings → Wallpaper. The Dock at the bottom acts as your primary app launcher — you can drag apps in or out, and organize them with spacers for a cleaner look. The Stage Manager feature (macOS Ventura and later) offers an alternative layout style for windows and apps.

The Variables That Shape Your Experience

How far you can actually customize depends on several layered factors:

OS version — iOS 16+ has different wallpaper tools than iOS 14. Older Android versions may lack widget features present in newer ones.
Device manufacturer — Samsung, Google, Motorola, and OnePlus all ship Android with different default launchers and customization depth.
Technical comfort level — Replacing a launcher or using Shortcuts for icon swaps requires more steps and tolerance for occasional quirks.
What "changed" means to you — A new wallpaper takes 30 seconds. A fully redesigned home screen with a custom launcher, icon pack, and widget layout can take an hour or more to set up and tune.
Third-party app permissions — Some customization apps require accessibility permissions, which carry their own privacy trade-offs worth understanding before granting.