home screen

Searching on the iPhone can be quick and easy with a downward swipe on the Home Screen. Spotlight on iOS indexes almost everything on your device. With a single search, results from apps, Notes, Maps, Safari, Photos, Messages, and more are returned. With iOS 16, Apple has added a Search button directly on the Home Screen.

This Search field appears above the Home Screen dock, replacing the dots that indicate how many Home Screens are configured on the iPhone. For some, this change may feel like overkill. After all, the downward swipe over the Home Screen is simple enough.

There are many ways to turn on the built-in iPhone flashlight. One of the most convenient is to add the flashlight as a Back Tap action. Using the flashlight button in the Control Center is a widely known method, provided the controls appearing in Control Center are properly configured.

Wallpapers look great on the latest iPhone displays, but they are often obscured by app icons on the Home Screen. Home Screen pages can be easily hidden and reorganized. There is also an easy way to create a blank Home Screen to show off iOS wallpapers without any apps in the way. With this trick, only the dock apps remain at the bottom of the screen.

Some iPhone owners are drowning in apps. Apple offers several ways for users to get devices more organized. One of the simplest and most useful is folders, which have been a part of iOS since 2010. But folders can spill over into multiple Home Screens. More recently, iOS includes the App Library, a place for every installed app to be automatically categorized and stored. Apps can be hidden from the Home Screen while remaining accessible in the App Library.

Widgets are one of the most noticeable and popular new features of iOS 14. They allow you to personalize your Home Screen like never before. In fact, with the new App Library, your Home Screen can take on an entirely new look, filled with widgets and completely devoid of apps. iOS 14 also lets you customize your app icons but alas, for some reason they have not yet added the ability to customize your widgets, other than their size.