There are dozens of latest options on this week’s iOS 26 launch, which embrace fairly just a few fascinating ones which have flown beneath the radar. One in all these could possibly be significantly enjoyable for anybody who’s picked a extra colourful iPhone 17 mannequin: now you can tint your Dwelling Display icons to match the colour of your iPhone and even an Apple-made iPhone case.
After years of a comparatively static expertise, Apple introduced some important adjustments in final 12 months’s iOS 18 launch to make your private home display screen extra colourful and customizable. Out of the blue, you may place icons wherever you wished, not simply within the subsequent obtainable contiguous slot, resize your icons and widgets extra simply, and alter your icons to any shade.
In iOS 18, this was finished with a pair of easy sliders that allow you to change the colour and alter its saturation. Nevertheless, iOS 26 has one other enjoyable trick up its sleeve. Now, a brand new set of buttons under the sliders means that you can select a tint that routinely matches the colour of your particular iPhone mannequin. Right here’s how you can discover this:
- Press and maintain in an empty spot in your iPhone Dwelling Display till the icons begin jiggling.
- Faucet Edit within the top-left nook.
- Choose Customise from the menu that seems. A customization panel will seem on the backside of the display screen.
- From right here, you may select Default or Darkish, which work the identical approach they did in iOS 18, or Clear to reap the benefits of the brand new Liquid Glass search for your icons. Nevertheless, on this case, we wish to select the Tinted possibility.
- You’ll see the identical pair of sliders that have been obtainable in iOS 18, with 4 buttons under that. Choose the button on the left, that includes the iPhone icon, to routinely select a shade that matches your iPhone’s end.
- Transfer the underside slider left or proper to regulate the saturation of the colour.
- Select Gentle or Darkish for a special look. You too can choose Auto to routinely match the icons to your iPhone’s mild or darkish mode setting.
The colour-matching possibility isn’t unique to the brand new iPhone fashions. You need to see it on any iPhone operating iOS 26; though there have been some stories of it not showing for older fashions, that’s probably a bug.
This works as a result of iOS 26 can inform which iPhone shade you have got from the half quantity, which you’ll be able to find by opening the Settings app and choosing Normal > About. The quantity proven beside “Mannequin Quantity,” which normally begins with an “M,” is the half quantity; tapping on this reveals the precise Mannequin Quantity, which begins with an “A.” Whereas all iPhones of a given kind have the identical mannequin quantity, every shade, capability, and nation will get its personal half quantity.
For instance, A3295 is the mannequin quantity for all iPhone 16 Professional Max fashions offered in Canada, Bahrain, Iraq, Guam, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Mexico, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the US Virgin Islands. Nevertheless, the half variety of MYWN3VC/A applies particularly to a Desert Titanium 512 GB iPhone 16 Professional Max offered in Canada. Different colours and capacities would have completely different numbers.
You probably have an Apple-made MagSafe case, iOS 26 may also allow you to match your icon tint to that. That’s as a result of Apple has been together with NFC chips in its MagSafe instances to assist iOS establish them because it first launched the expertise with the iPhone 12. In case you’ve ever paid consideration whereas popping on an Apple MagSafe case, you’ve in all probability already observed the ring that seems in the identical shade as your case.
Within the steps we shared above, the second button from the left — the one with a case glyph inside — will match your icons to your case shade, if potential. In case you faucet this button and not using a appropriate case connected, it would simply set all the things to Liquid Glass transparency, identical to selecting Clear from the primary customization panel.
You too can use the eye-dropper button on the correct to decide on a shade out of your background wallpaper as the premise to your tint.
There’s additionally some excellent news for many who weren’t followers of the Tinted mode in iOS 18. Many of us (together with us) discovered it a little bit unusual because it adopted a black background for the icons and tinted the graphics on high. With the brand new Liquid Glass design in iOS 26, the tint now applies to your entire icon, with the graphics rendered in white. Darkish Mode retains the identical impact, merely firming issues down into extra subdued colours, however avoids turning all the things utterly black. This leads to a way more elegant and uniform look.
The brand new matching characteristic is a small however enjoyable contact that makes iOS 26 really feel extra private and kooky — particularly if you happen to’re the type of one who likes to match your wallpaper, widgets, and case.