It’s been 17 years since the iPhone came out, and Apple now (and only now!) lets you place app icons wherever you want. When iOS 18 comes out this fall, you’ll be able to place icons and widgets anywhere on your home screen, with as much space as you want between them.
They’ll still be laid out in a grid, but app icons won’t need to fill all available grid spaces starting from the top-left corner. Want to leave some space empty and place a few icons at the bottom, near the home row? Go for it! It’s amazing, we know.
Here’s how you can rearrange your app icons and widgets to your liking in iOS 18.
On the home screen, long press anywhere except on an app or widget for two seconds. The icons will start moving and you will see a small (-) sign in the upper left corner of each one. This is the editing mode for your home screen.
In this editing mode, long press on an icon to drag it where you want. If you want to move it to another home screen, simply drag it to the edge of your screen. This is how you rearrange your app icons in each modern version of iOS, and like before, you can create folders by dragging apps on top of each other.
The new thing is that when you place an app somewhere with some space between it and the apps above it, it stays there rather than jumping to the first empty slot starting at the top left corner. You can therefore position your icons around a photo or create a simple design.
Grab and move multiple icons
Another new feature in iOS 18: the ability to move multiple icons at once. When you’re in edit mode on the Home screen with moving icons, long-press an app icon, then with another finger start tapping other icons to “group” them.
You’ll see a number in a blue circle at the top right of your app icon to indicate how many you’ve collected in your stack.
Now simply drag the icon to where you want it to go and release it, and your entire icon stack will move with it.
