iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island Makes Using Custom App Icons More Seamless

Many users are opted to use custom app icons on their Home Screen. They do this as a way to customize their iPhones.

With iOS, users do not have an option to easily change and use custom app icons. But thanks to the new iPhone 14 Pro and Dynamic Island, using custom app icons is now much more seamless.

iPhone 14 Pro's Dynamic Island: What It Is and How Developers are Having Their Fun With it — Apple / Screenshot taken from the Apple Newsroom

Apple Just Made Customizing iPhones Easy

Users have been using custom app icons on iOS with Shortcuts. According to MacRumors, with the use of Shortcuts app on iOS, "users can create a custom shortcut on their Home Screen with any image or custom app icon they wish that opens a specific app."

However, this workaround of customizing iPhones has not been entirely perfect. Practical limitations present with the customization can be annoying.

For instance, when you tap on a custom app icon shortcut on your Home Screen, there is a large banner that appears at the top of your display. The large banner appears to confirm the shortcut is running.

This makes the workaround annoying and less ideal. Moreover, user think that the banner is distracting and intrusive to their usage experience.

Thankfully, with the iPhone 14 and Dynamic Island, users can enjoy using custom app icons with Shortcuts as the banner no longer appear at the top of your display. The shortcut runs seamlessly in Dynamic Island.

According to 9to5Mac, Parker Ortolani noted that the large banner at the top of the screen is no longer shown in the home screen shortcuts with custom icons. This is true for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.

To confirm that the shortcut has been successfully executed, iOS shows a small animation on the Dynamic Islands. But this feature is only available on the said iPhone models.

Seamless Use of Custom App Icons is Applicable Only to iPhone Pro Users

9to5Mac noted that the banner can cause a delay when it comes to the "the time it took for the user to interact with the app."

Since the shortcut runs seamlessly in Dynamic Island, this delay has now also been removed.

Sad to say, the said change is applicable only for iPhone 14 Pro users. Users of older models of iPhones and iPad still have to deal with the banner as they open a home screen shortcut with custom icon.

However, while Dynamic Island makes it much more seamless to run custom app icon shortcuts, there are still some limitations with this feature.

According to MacRumors, one of these limitations is the notification badges are not shown in custom app icons like normal apps.

Those users who prefer to use a custom app icon for social media or messaging apps will find this less appealing. This is particularly annoying when you want to see notification badges.

Following iOS 14, creating custom app icons became a trend to users in 2020. The iOS 14 first brought the redesigned widgets to the Home Screen on the iPhone.

Since the feature was introduced to the users, Apple has "more openly adopted the idea of users customizing iOS to their specific likings."