Owing to a potential feature in iOS 18, iPhones—such as the reconditioned iPhone SE 3, which retails for $229.94 on Amazon—might feel more like Android smartphones than ever before.
Drawing from “sources familiar with the matter” and building on Mark Gurman’s earlier comments about a “more customizable” interface, MacRumors asserts that the upcoming iOS version will let users organize their apps more freely on the iPhone homescreen. iOS 18 might include a feature that allows you to add vacant spaces to the grid that organizes apps on the homescreen, even though apps will still reportedly be bound to it.
Currently, the only way to create spaces is through various workarounds, including using the Shortcuts apps to make a blank widget or using a third-party app like Widgy to do the same. However, this rumor claims that blank spaces will be built into iOS 18, meaning third-party tricks won’t be necessary.
Apple users have asked for the ability to freely arrange app icons since early versions of iOS. The lack of app arrangement options has long been a point of contention between iOS and Android; Android has allowed users to arrange their apps wherever they want (though often restricted to a grid) since its inception. Homescreen customization remains a selling point for Android smartphones (like the Google Pixel 8 Pro, available at Amazon for $749.00).
Prior to the introduction of widgets in iOS 14 (another feature Android phones had long before Apple’s handsets), the only way to insert blank spaces between apps on an iPhone or arrange apps outside the rigid, ordered default grid was to jailbreak an iPhone and install a tweak that freed up app arrangement.
This rumor should be taken with a grain of salt. Gurman did not go into detail concerning what he meant by a more customizable homescreen, and the “sources familiar with the matter” may well turn out to be bunk. However, Apple will likely unveil iOS 18 at its WWDC event in June.
