Why How to Change the Color of Your Apps Is Finally Actually Good

Staring at the same neon-green Spotify logo or that blindingly white Instagram icon for three years straight does something to your brain. It’s boring. Worse than boring, it’s messy. Your home screen looks like a digital junk drawer where nothing matches. You want a vibe. Maybe you want a minimalist monochrome look, or perhaps you’re chasing that "cottagecore" aesthetic that’s been all over Pinterest. Whatever it is, learning how to change the color of your apps isn't just about being picky; it’s about taking ownership of the rectangle you spend six hours a day staring at.

For a long time, doing this was a total nightmare. If you had an iPhone, you were stuck with what Apple gave you. If you had an Android, you had to download sketchy "launchers" that drained your battery faster than a 4K video stream. But things changed. Apple finally loosened the reigns with iOS 18, and Google’s "Material You" actually started working the way they promised back in 2021.

The iOS 18 Revolution (And the Shortcut Hack)

Apple finally let us do it. No more jumping through hoops just to get a dark mode icon. Well, mostly.

If you’ve updated to iOS 18, you can basically long-press your home screen, hit "Edit," then "Customize," and boom—you have a color picker. It’s huge. You can tint every single icon on your screen to a specific hex code or let the phone suggest colors based on your wallpaper. Honestly, it’s a bit of a game-changer for people who hate clutter. The icons lose their individual branding and become part of a cohesive design.

But there’s a catch. Not every app looks great when it’s tinted. Some third-party apps that haven't updated their assets end up looking like weird, muddy ghosts of their former selves. If you're on an older version of iOS, or if you want total control over the specific image used for an icon, you’re still going back to the Shortcuts app.

Shortcuts is the "old reliable" method. You create a "New Shortcut," add the "Open App" action, choose your app, and then—this is the key—you add it to your Home Screen. When you do that, Apple lets you pick any photo from your gallery to serve as the icon. You can go to a site like Gumroad or Etsy, buy a professionally designed icon pack, and manually replace every single one. It’s tedious. It takes forever. You’ll probably want to quit halfway through. But the result? A phone that looks like a high-end fashion magazine instead of a cluttered app store.

Android and the Material You Magic

Google handles this differently. They want the system to do the work for you. With Android 12 and later, specifically on Pixel phones and Samsung devices running One UI, you have "Material You."

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Basically, you pick a wallpaper, and the OS "scrapes" the dominant colors from that image. It then applies those colors to your system toggles, your clock, and—if you toggle the setting—your app icons. It’s called "Themed Icons." When it works, it’s beautiful. Your Slack icon becomes a soft pastel blue to match the ocean in your background. Your calculator turns a muted sandy brown.

The problem? Developers.

Google can’t force Spotify or TikTok to provide a monochrome icon. So, you often end up with a screen where 80% of the icons are perfectly themed and 20%—the holdouts—are still their original, jarring colors. It ruins the effect. It’s like wearing a tuxedo with neon yellow Crocs. To fix this on Android, most power users switch to a third-party launcher like Nova Launcher or Niagara. These allow you to apply "Icon Packs" from the Play Store that override everything. You can find packs that have 10,000+ icons, ensuring that even your niche banking app gets a facelift.

Why Branding is Fighting Your Aesthetic

Ever wonder why it's so hard to how to change the color of your apps without a fight? It’s because of "Brand Recognition."

Companies like Facebook (Meta) and Netflix spend millions of dollars making sure you can find their icon in 0.2 seconds. They want that "Netflix Red" to pop out at you. When you change that icon to a muted grey or a soft pink, you’re literally training your brain to ignore their product. They hate that. This is why many apps don't offer an "in-app" icon changer.

A few "cool" apps do, though. Telegram and Reddit have historically let you choose from a few different icon styles if you dig deep enough into the settings. Usually, this is tucked under "Appearance" or "Premium" features. Slack lets you change the sidebar color, but the home screen icon stays the same. It’s a constant tug-of-war between your desire for a pretty phone and their desire for your attention.

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The Mental Health Angle of Customization

This isn't just about vanity. There’s a real psychological benefit to streamlining your UI.

"Digital minimalism" is a growing movement. Proponents argue that by making your apps less colorful and less "exciting," you actually reduce the dopamine hit you get when looking at your phone. If Instagram isn't a bright, colorful camera icon but just a flat, grey square, you might find yourself clicking it less. You’re taking the "gamification" out of the home screen.

I’ve talked to people who use the "Grayscale" trick—a hidden accessibility setting on both iPhone and Android—to turn their entire phone black and white. It makes the device feel like a tool rather than a toy. Changing app colors is the middle ground. It lets you keep the functionality while removing the visual noise that causes "choice paralysis" or "notification anxiety."

Step-by-Step Breakdown for the Impatient

If you want to do this right now, here is the most direct path depending on your hardware.

For iOS 18 Users:

1. Long-press any empty space on your Home Screen.
2. Tap Edit in the top left corner.
3. Select Customize.
4. Choose Tinted.
5. Use the sliders to match your wallpaper or pick a high-contrast vibe.

For Android (Pixel/Samsung) Users:

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1. Long-press your home screen and hit Wallpaper & style.
2. Look for Themed icons and toggle it on.
3. Note: This usually only works for the Home Screen, not the App Drawer.

For Everyone Else (The Shortcut Method):

1. Download an icon pack (or save images from Pinterest).
2. Open the Shortcuts app (iOS) or a Shortcut Maker app (Android).
3. Create a command to "Open App."
4. When saving to the home screen, select "Choose Photo" for the icon.
5. Repeat until you’re tired of looking at your screen.

What People Get Wrong

The biggest misconception is that changing an app's color changes the app itself. It doesn't. When you use the Shortcut method on iPhone, you aren't actually modifying the Instagram app. You are creating a "portal" that points to Instagram.

This used to cause a noticeable delay. You’d click the icon, the Shortcuts app would flash open for a split second, and then the app would open. It was jarring. Thankfully, Apple mostly fixed this, though you still get a small notification banner at the top of the screen every time you launch an app via a custom icon. It’s the "customization tax" you have to pay.

Also, remember that notification badges (the little red numbers) sometimes disappear when you use custom icons. If you’re the type of person who relies on seeing "452 unread emails" to feel alive, the custom icon life might not be for you.

Actionable Next Steps

If you’re ready to overhaul your look, don't try to do every app at once. It’s an easy way to burn out and end up with a half-finished mess. Start with your "Dock"—the four apps at the bottom. Since those are the ones you see on every single page, changing their color gives you the biggest "bang for your buck."

Search for "HEX color palettes" on sites like Coolors.co to find a set of five colors that actually look good together. If you’re on Android, download a launcher like Niagara to see how a truly "clean" interface feels before you commit to hours of icon swapping. Customizing your phone is a rabbit hole, but once you get the colors right, the device finally feels like yours rather than a billboard for a dozen different tech giants.