How to Change Your App Icons With Shortcuts on iPhone

Customizing your iPhone's home screen has become one of the most popular ways to personalize the look and feel of iOS — and the Shortcuts app is the tool that makes it possible without jailbreaking your device. But the process involves more steps than most people expect, and the results can vary depending on how you set things up.

Here's a clear breakdown of how it works, what affects your experience, and what to think about before you start.

What "Changing App Icons With Shortcuts" Actually Means

iOS doesn't allow direct icon replacement the way Android does with third-party launchers. Instead, the Shortcuts method works by creating a shortcut that opens an app, then assigning a custom image to that shortcut and placing it on your home screen.

What you're placing on your home screen isn't the app itself — it's a Shortcuts bookmark that launches the app. The real app still exists in your App Library.

This distinction matters because it affects how the icon behaves.

Step-by-Step: How to Set It Up

What You'll Need

• An iPhone running iOS 13 or later (the Shortcuts app is built-in)
• Custom icon images saved to your Photos or Files app (PNG files with transparent backgrounds work best)
• The Shortcuts app (pre-installed; re-downloadable from the App Store if deleted)

The Process

1. Open the Shortcuts app and tap the + button to create a new shortcut.
2. Tap Add Action, then search for and select Open App.
3. Tap the word "App" in the action block and choose the app you want to customize.
4. Tap the three-dot menu (top right) to open shortcut details.
5. Tap Add to Home Screen.
6. Tap the icon preview box to choose your custom image — you can select a photo, file, or use the camera.
7. Name the shortcut (this becomes the label under the icon).
8. Tap Add to place it on your home screen.

Repeat this for each app you want to customize.

The Variables That Affect Your Experience 🎨

Not everyone gets the same result. Several factors shape how smooth or frustrating the process feels.

iOS Version

On iOS 14 and earlier, tapping a custom icon shortcut would briefly open the Shortcuts app before launching your target app — a noticeable redirect delay. Starting with iOS 16, Apple improved automation handling, and by iOS 18, shortcut-based icon taps on supported setups have become significantly smoother. The exact behavior can still vary by device and iOS build.

Image Quality and Format

The custom image you use becomes your icon. If it's low resolution, it will look pixelated. 1024 x 1024 pixels is a commonly recommended size for sharp results across all iPhone display densities. PNG format with a transparent background gives you the most control over how the icon appears against your wallpaper.

The Redirect Behavior

This is the most common frustration with the Shortcuts method. When you tap a custom icon, the system has to:

1. Recognize the shortcut tap
2. Open or pass through the Shortcuts app
3. Execute the "Open App" action
4. Launch the target app

On older iOS versions or slower devices, this sequence is visible as a brief flash or bounce through Shortcuts. On newer hardware and software, it's faster — but it still isn't instantaneous like a native icon tap.

App Library Clutter

Your original app icons don't disappear. They move to the App Library (or stay on your home screen unless you remove them manually). Managing this requires hiding pages, using folders, or removing native icons from the home screen view — which adds setup time, especially if you're customizing many apps.

Icon Packs and Pre-Made Shortcut Sets

Many designers sell or share icon packs — collections of matching custom images in consistent visual styles — on platforms like Etsy or design communities. Some come with pre-configured shortcut files; others are just image folders you apply manually.

Using a pack versus creating your own icons changes the workload significantly:

Automation vs. Appearance: A Key Distinction

The Shortcuts app is primarily an automation tool — it was designed to chain actions, run scripts, and trigger workflows. Using it purely for icon aesthetics is a workaround, not an intended feature. This is worth understanding because it explains why the experience has rough edges: the redirect behavior, the extra setup steps, and the fact that notification badges don't appear on shortcut icons (they still appear on the real app icon in the App Library).

If notification counts on your home screen icons are important to you — for messaging apps, email, or calendar — the Shortcuts method won't surface those on the custom icons.

What Your Setup Determines

Whether this method works well for you depends on a combination of things that vary from person to person: which iPhone model you're using, which iOS version you're running, how many apps you want to customize, whether notification badges matter to you, and how much setup time you're willing to invest.

Someone redesigning a minimal home screen with five or six aesthetic apps will have a very different experience than someone trying to replace every icon across a heavily-used device. 📱 The method is the same — but what it costs in effort and what it delivers in polish shifts considerably based on those specifics.