Key Takeaways
- Many third-party iPhone apps don’t have a Dark Mode-compatible icon.
- While iOS 18 tries to override such app icons with dark versions, it doesn’t always work.
- You can use the built-in Shortcuts app to easily create Dark Mode icons for apps that don’t have one.
iOS 18 tries to override app icons with dark versions if they don’t have Dark Mode-compatible icons. However, it doesn’t always work. Hence, I use a workaround to create dark icons for apps on my iPhone that don’t have one.
This workaround comes from the Reddit user
Straight_Random_2211
. It involves obtaining the assets (the original app icon and iOS 18’s dark icon background) and creating a new app icon using them that you then add to the Home Screen to replace the existing one for launching the app.
Get the Shortcut to Obtain the Dark App Icon
First, you need the original icon for the app that isn’t Dark Mode-compatible. It’s easy to get this icon with the Get App Icon shortcut, which pulls app icons for a slew of iPhone apps.
Go to the Get App Icon shortcut page and tap Get Shortcut. Then, tap Open to open it in the built-in Shortcuts app and hit Add Shortcut to add it to your library.
Tap the Get App Icon shortcut to run it. Now, type the name of the unsupported app in the input prompt and hit Done to look it up. Then, tap the matching app, and the shortcut will save the app’s original icon to your Photos app.
Save the iOS 18 Dark Icon Background to Your iPhone
Next, you need a dark background. This is what we’ll replace the original background of our unsupported app icon with. Since we want all the dark app icons on the Home Screen to have the same tone, it’s best to use the iOS dark icon background.
Simply access the dark icon background page, long-tap the image, and select Save to Photos to save it to the Photos app.
Create the Dark Mode Icon for the App
Now that we have the original app icon and the dark background, creating the Dark Mode icon for your app is easy. We’ll use Remove.bg’s Change Image Background tool to do this, which lets us remove the white background from the original app icon and replace it with our dark background image.
Head to Remove.bg’s Change Image Background tool on your iPhone. Tap Upload Image, choose Photo Library, and select the original app icon you saved to the Photos app above.
Similarly, tap the Select File button under Background Image and select Photo Library. Then, choose the dark icon background you saved previously.
As soon as you do this, the tool will generate a new app icon with a dark background. Tap Download and hit View on the confirmation prompt. This will open the icon in a new tab. Long-press the image and select Save to Photos to save it to your Photos app library.
You may tap the
Download
option in the prompt, too, but that’ll save the image to the Files app.
Create an App Shortcut to Open the App
With everything done, the final step is to create an app shortcut for the Home Screen that uses the dark icon you just createdd as its icon.
Open the Shortcuts app and tap the + button in the top-right corner to create a new shortcut.
Next, tap the Search Actions bar, look up Open App, and tap the matching action to add it to the shortcut. Tap the App text on this action and select the app whose dark icon you just created on the following screen.
Now, tap the Open App text at the top and select Rename. Type the name of the app for which you’ve created the dark icon here and hit Done.
Hit the name again and select Add to Home Screen. On the following screen, tap the photo icon and select Choose Photo. Now, locate and select the dark app icon in your Photos library, and hit Choose to use it.
Finally, tap Add in the top-right corner to save the shortcut to your iPhone’s Home Screen.
After you do this, you can remove the original app from the Home Screen. Tap and hold the app’s icon on the Home Screen, then select Remove App, followed by Remove from Home Screen on the confirmation prompt.
Using the workaround above, you can easily create a dark icon for any iPhone app that doesn’t natively offer a dark app icon to match. Besides making app icons dark, you can customize your iPhone’s Home Screen to make them large and label-free or apply a custom color tint to match the wallpaper.
