Apple Should Offer an Icon-Only Option for iOS Device Home Screens

I was looking at my iPhone today, and the thought crossed my mind that I don’t really need to see the names of apps beneath their icons. Just as with the four apps in the Dock, I recognize my apps by their icons; their names just get in the way, adding clutter to my iPhone’s home screen. Imagine if it looked like this:

No names

Doesn’t that look a lot better, a lot cleaner? Compare it to this, where the texts of some apps are pretty compressed to make them fit on one line.

Names

It would be great if Apple offered an icon-only option on iOS. One advantage is that it would be possible to decrease the spacing between icons, allowing for an extra row.

These are apps I use daily, and I don’t need to see their names, and I can understand that people who download lots of apps may want to see the names for new apps. So perhaps the option could be just for the first home screen, and only for apps, not for folders.

0 thoughts on “Apple Should Offer an Icon-Only Option for iOS Device Home Screens

  1. I need the names of my apps. Some I rarely open. Sometimes updates create new icons. Uber changed theirs and I couldn’t find it. The name made it possible to find it. The old icon had no resemblance to the new icon.

  2. This is a great idea! I love how clean and stream-lined the screen looks without the names under the apps. Maybe Apple can allow people to choose between names and no names.

  3. If there were to be a change, I’d like the choice of 3 options in Settings.

    All icons named (as now).
    All icons unnamed
    Unnamed only on First Home Screen

    That would cover all tastes, I reckon.

  4. I agree. So many icons are self-explanatory, such as Camera, Find My Friends – notice there isn’t enough space to include “My” under the icon – and Kindle. A classic example is SONOS, which is writ large across the icon itself. Sonos however gets my prize for the most boring and unimaginative icon ever designed in the history of iconography.

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