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Change App Icons: Choose a Method for Your Device

Learn how to restyle iPhone and iPad icons, add a custom-photo shortcut, use Samsung Galaxy Themes, and check icon options on other Android phones.
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You can change how app icons look on an iPhone or iPad with Home Screen appearance controls, or put a personal photo on an individual Home Screen shortcut using Apple Shortcuts. On Samsung Galaxy, Galaxy Themes offers icon sets. Other Android phones vary by manufacturer and launcher, so there is no single procedure that works on every device.

Choose the kind of icon change you want

“Change an app icon” can mean changing the way an app appears on your own Home Screen or replacing the icon asset distributed with an app. The options below are for personalizing your device; they do not change the app for other people.

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Method Scope Image choice
iPhone or iPad Home Screen customization Changes the appearance of icons broadly System-provided styles such as dark, clear, or tinted
Apple Shortcuts Adds an individual shortcut tile to the Home Screen Choose a photo, take a photo, or select a file
Samsung Galaxy Themes Applies a theme’s icon set where supported Icons supplied by the selected theme
Other Android launchers or settings Depends on the device and launcher Depends on what the manufacturer or launcher supports

Change icon appearance on iPhone or iPad

On supported iPhone and iPad software, Apple provides built-in controls for changing the Home Screen’s icon appearance. These apply a broad style rather than assigning a separate arbitrary photo to each installed app.

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  1. Go to the Home Screen and touch and hold the background until the icons jiggle.
  2. Tap Edit, then tap Customize.
  3. Choose an available appearance, such as dark, clear, or tinted, and adjust the icon size if you want.

Apple’s design guidance describes default, dark, clear, and tinted icon appearances for iOS and iPadOS. The system can generate appearance variants when an app developer has not supplied them. Apple’s iPhone guide to customizing Home Screen icons explains the user-facing controls.

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Put your own photo on one iPhone or iPad Home Screen icon

For an individual image, use Shortcuts to add a shortcut tile to the Home Screen. This is a shortcut with its own image and displayed name, not a replacement of the app’s distributed icon throughout iOS or iPadOS.

  1. Open the shortcut in the Shortcuts app, tap Details, then tap Add to Home Screen.
  2. In the Home Screen Name and Icon area, tap the icon.
  3. Choose Take Photo, Choose Photo, or Choose File.
  4. Optionally edit the displayed name, then tap Add.

Apple documents this method for adding a shortcut to the Home Screen in its Shortcuts user guide. It does not promise that the custom shortcut image will appear in other places, such as search results, notifications, settings, or the App Library.

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Change icons on a Samsung Galaxy phone or tablet

Samsung Galaxy devices can use icon sets available through Galaxy Themes. Depending on the selected theme, the package may also change elements such as wallpaper, the lock screen, fonts, or sounds; not every theme changes every element or covers every third-party app.

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Open Galaxy Themes, browse or select a theme, and inspect its description for the included icons and other changes before applying it. Samsung’s instructions and menu labels can vary by model, software sequence, settings, and region. The cited support page is for Australian products, so use your local Samsung support information if the labels differ: Samsung Australia’s Galaxy Themes instructions.

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Other Android phones: check the manufacturer’s launcher

Android does not have one universal setting for replacing arbitrary app icons with personal images. Manufacturers provide different launchers and settings. Start by checking your device’s built-in Wallpaper & style, Themes, or launcher options. If you do not find per-app icon controls, check the support documentation for your exact model and software version before installing another launcher or shortcut app.

Google’s general instructions cover adding apps and app-provided shortcuts to a Home Screen, not a universal method for assigning your own image to any app. Some of Google’s Home Screen instructions apply only to Android 14 and newer. See Google’s Android Home Screen help and Android Developers’ overview of launcher icons for the distinction between Home Screen items and app icons.

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  • Check your phone’s model, Android version, and launcher name.
  • Look for icon controls in the manufacturer’s built-in personalization settings first.
  • If considering a third-party launcher or shortcut app, verify its current features, privacy terms, cost, and compatibility with your device. The available documentation does not establish a particular third-party utility as a recommendation.
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What changes—and what does not

Personalizing a Home Screen changes how you see or launch an app on your device. It does not replace the icon included in the published app. On iPhone and iPad, Apple says an app developer who wants to change an icon after publication must create and upload a new app version and submit it for review; this is a publishing workflow, not a user setting. Apple’s App Store Connect documentation on app icons describes the developer-side process.

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