I’ve never tried to draw iPhone icons because I know I’m no artist. But with the new iConRock web app for generating custom Home screen icons for iPhone and iPad, I don’t need to be one.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS:
- iConRock is a web app for creating fun iOS icon packs
- Customize your Home screen icons with a few clicks
- In the Shortcuts app, create app launchers for these icons
- Tapping a custom icon will silently launch the app
iConRock is a custom iPhone icon pack generator
Available as a web app at 7labs.io/a/iconrock, the software makes it really easy to create fun icon packs that will set apart your iPhone or iPad’s home screen from someone else’s.
The process starts by choosing a background for icons from a bunch of presets. With the icon background set, you’ll then have the chance to adjust the size of the glyphs inside the icons.
→ How to create custom home screen icons for iPhone and iPad
7Labs offers glyphs for stock apps as well as many popular third-party apps that you can instantly use, including Instagram, Photoshop, PayPal and so forth. You can create up to sixteen icons without paying anything, but getting past that ceiling will require a small payment.
You’re left with a few details before the icon pack is ready for download.
For instance, iConRock allows you to change the glyph strokes width to make the illustration thinner or thicker, as well as choose a custom stroke color. Lastly, feel free to add some shadow or apply a glow effect to all the icons at once.
And that’s it, you can now download the whole icon pack to the Files app on your iOS device!
How to create custom iPhone icons packs with iConRock
With the custom icons downloaded to your OS device, you’ll need to use Apple’s stock Shortcuts app to create a custom script that will then apply the icon pack to your home screen.
- Open the Shortcuts app on your iOS device.
- Choose “My Shortcuts” from the bottom-left corner.
- Hit the “+” button in the top-right corner to create a new shortcut.
- Tap Add Action → Scripting → Open App or search for “Open App” and tap it from there.
- In the Open App section, select “Choose” and pick the app to add a custom icon to.
- Tap the three dots from the top-right corner, then choose “Add to Home Screen”.
- Underneath the Home Screen Name and Icon heading, type the app name.
- Underneath Home Screen Name and Icon, select the shortcut icon and tap “Choose File”, then navigate to the folder in the Files app where you saved your downloaded icon pack to choose the specific icon to apply to the shortcut.
- Review the app icon and name in the preview, then choose “Add” from the top-right corner.
And that’s it, girls and boys!
Now you have a shortcut with a custom icon sitting on the home screen. When tapped, it will silently launch the underlying app as if you tapped the original app icon itself. Feel free to move your shortcut to a preferred position on the home screen like you would the original icon.
How to revert back to the original app icons
You can temporarily hide the original app icon from the home screen by holding down the icon until the contextual menu pops up, then choose the option “Remove from Home Screen”.
To revert back to the original icons, swipe left on the home screen to get to the App Library section., then use the search field at the top to find the app in question. Lastly, hold its icon in the search results to invoke the contextual menu and select the option “Add to Home Screen”.