Customizing the home screen has become popular since the release of iOS 14, and many users have been adding custom app icons to their home screen using the Shortcuts app to create unprecedented levels of personalization.
The only problem with this method is that it kicks you to and from the Shortcuts app whenever you open an app with a custom icon, which isn't a great way to optimize usage and can be annoying. However, thanks to the latest update to Launch Center Pro, there's now a way to add custom app icons without going anywhere near the Shortcuts app.
Launch Center Pro manages this by using configuration profiles to add custom icons to the home screen, while a new Icon Composer lets you create unique icons with options to change icon size and color, and use glyphs, photos, shapes, names, and badges to supplement it.
1/ The great Home Screen customization craze of September 2020 sent us right to work on @LaunchCenterPro. With today’s update you can now create Profiles that save many custom icons to your Home Screen at once. And they don’t launch through Shortcuts! (except Apple’s apps 🙄) pic.twitter.com/X79HsEpaBD — David Barnard (@drbarnard) October 19, 2020
When you've finished creating your icons, a downloadable configuration profile is generated by Launch Center Pro that you then need to install on your device.
The developers say each profile is cryptographically signed for security, and just contains links to web clips that launch each customized app on your iPhone or iPad. Once the profile is installed, your custom app icons appear on the home screen, where you can rearrange them to your liking.
As the video above demonstrates, it's a neat workaround that should prove popular until Apple decides to add a native ability to customize icons in iOS, and the app's interface makes the whole customization process easier and a lot less time-consuming than the Shortcuts method. The only limitation is that if you want to customize the icons of Apple's stock apps, these do still need to launch via Shortcuts.
Launch Center Pro is a free download on the App Store, but the Icon Composer is a $20 in-app purchase. In addition, the app offers a $14.49 subscription bundle that includes the icon composer as well as several other features. A free 7-day trial is also available.
