Need help figuring out how to change app icons on my phone

General
1

I’ve been trying to customize my phone’s home screen by changing the app icons, but I can’t seem to get it right. Some apps change, others stay the same, and a few disappear from the home screen entirely. I’m not sure if I’m missing a step, using the wrong settings, or if it depends on the phone or launcher. Can someone explain the correct way to change app icons and what I should be using so everything looks consistent?

2

Yeah, this stuff gets weird fast. The exact steps depend on if you are on iPhone or Android, so I will split it.

iPHONE (iOS)

If you use the Shortcuts app:

  1. Open Shortcuts.
  2. Tap the plus, pick “Open App”.
  3. Tap “App”, pick the app you want.
  4. Tap the little i icon or the settings thing in the top.
  5. Tap “Add to Home Screen”.
  6. Tap the icon next to the shortcut name, pick your custom image.
  7. Tap “Add”.

Important points:
• The original app icon stays in the App Library. You can remove it from the Home Screen so only your shortcut icon shows. Long press the old icon, tap “Remove App”, then “Remove from Home Screen” not “Delete App”.
• Some apps you changed are shortcuts now, not the real icon. If they “disappear”, they are probably in the App Library or on another page.
• When you tap a shortcut icon, it opens the Shortcut first, then the app. That is normal for this method.

If you used a third party icon pack app:
• Most of those apps also create Shortcuts in the background.
• After it “applies” the theme, scroll through all your Home Screen pages, new icons often land at the last page.
• Any missing apps should be in App Library. Swipe all the way right, search the name, long press, pick “Add to Home Screen”.

Quick check on iOS:

  1. Pick one problem app.
  2. Search it from the Home Screen search.
  3. If it shows with the original icon in App Library, long press, “Add to Home Screen”.
  4. Then hide the duplicate or wrong shortcut.

ANDROID

This depends on your launcher.

If you use the stock launcher:

  1. Long press a blank spot on the Home Screen.
  2. Tap “Themes” or “Wallpapers and style” or “Home settings” depending on brand.
  3. Look for “Icons” or “Icon style”.
  4. Apply an icon pack if your phone supports it.

If you use a custom launcher like Nova Launcher:

  1. Long press the app icon on Home Screen.
  2. Tap “Edit”.
  3. Tap the icon image.
  4. Pick from your icon pack, gallery, or built in icons.
  5. Tap “Done”.

If icons disappear:
• Long press the Home Screen, tap “Settings” or “Home settings”.
• Check if you changed the default launcher. Sometimes switching launcher hides the previous layout.
• Swipe up for the app drawer. Long press the app you want, drag it to the Home Screen.

Why some apps do not change:
• Some icon packs do not include every app.
• On Android, unsupported apps keep the original icon.
• On iOS Shortcuts, if you forgot to make a shortcut for a specific app, that one will stay default.

If you reply with your phone model and whether you used Shortcuts, a theme app, or a custom launcher, people here can walk you through fixes step by step.

3

Sounds like you’ve hit the classic “custom icons chaos” stage. @viajeroceleste covered the how-to pretty well, so I’ll hit the “why is my screen cursed like this” side and how to clean it up.

First thing: decide what exactly you want:

  • Only pretty custom icons on the Home Screen
  • No duplicate icons
  • Everything actually still installed and findable

Then:

1. Figure out what’s real vs shortcut (iOS & a lot of Android theming apps)
What’s confusing you is probably this:

  • The real app icon still exists somewhere (App Library on iOS, or App Drawer on Android)
  • The cute icon is just a shortcut or themed version
  • So you end up with:
    • Original icon
    • Shortcut icon
    • Sometimes a third copy if you used a theme app that made its own shortcut

Quick sanity check:

  • Search the app by name from the system search
  • Whatever launches from there with the default icon is the real app
  • Anything with your custom image is just a wrapper

I actually disagree a bit with treating shortcuts as “just as good” as the real app on iOS. They work, but:

  • They add a tiny delay
  • Sometimes you lose notification badges
  • It’s easy to forget which are real vs shortcuts and then your layout is pain to manage

2. Why some apps change and others don’t

This is normal, not you messing up:

  • Icon packs usually cover only popular apps
  • Anything not supported just stays on the default icon
  • If you’re mixing:
    • System theming (built in)
    • Icon pack
    • Shortcuts / a theme app
      then you get 3 different “systems” fighting each other

If you want consistency, pick ONE method:

  • iOS: either full‑commit to Shortcuts / a theming app, or live with mostly stock icons
  • Android: best is a custom launcher with an icon pack, and for the few missing apps, manually set icons

3. The “apps disappeared” thing

They almost never actually disappear. Usually it’s:

  • iOS:
    • The original icon got removed from Home Screen and lives in App Library now
    • The shortcut landed on a different Home Screen page
  • Android:
    • You changed launcher or Home layout got reset
    • Icons moved to another page, or you’re looking at a different launcher’s home

What I do to fix this cleanly:

On iOS: “semi‑reset + rebuild” approach

  1. Long press the Home Screen
  2. Remove all custom shortcut icons for a couple of apps that are bugging you
  3. Swipe to App Library, long press the original app, “Add to Home Screen”
  4. Once you see the original icon again, then decide:
    • Keep it stock
    • Or hide it and recreate one clean shortcut for it

Do a few key apps first, not your whole phone. Get your method feeling sane, then go all‑in.

On Android: “clean theme strategy”

  1. Decide:
    • Use stock launcher + built‑in icons only, or
    • Use third‑party launcher + icon pack
      Mixing 3 different theme systems is how people end up with the clown collage look.
  2. Open your app drawer
  3. For any missing icon, long press and drag it to the Home Screen again
  4. Then long press each icon and check if there’s an “Edit” option
    • If yes, apply a custom icon there
    • If the icon pack doesn’t have that app, pick an image from gallery so it at least matches the style

4. A quick way to stop the chaos before it grows

Before changing everything, test with 3 apps:

  • One system app (like Settings)
  • One popular app (like Instagram)
  • One random / obscure app

If all 3:

  • Show up where you expect
  • Use the icons you expect
  • Don’t create weird duplicates

Then your method is fine and you just need to repeat it carefully.
If one of them behaves weird, fix the method before touching the rest.

If you reply with:

  • iPhone or Android
  • Phone model
  • Whether you used Shortcuts, a theme app, or a custom launcher

I can tell you exactly what to tap to un-mess the layout for 1 or 2 specific apps first so you’re not nuking your whole homescreen over and over.

4

You’re basically fighting three things at once: system behavior, theming behavior, and your own layout experiments. Instead of more “how to change icons,” here’s how to stabilize what you already did.

1. Stop editing from the Home Screen for a bit

Counterpoint to @viajeroceleste here: I’d avoid long‑press chaos on the Home Screen until you know what’s where. Every drag, remove, or new shortcut you add makes it harder to reverse‑engineer.

Use only:

  • App Library (iOS) or App Drawer (Android) to find “real” apps
  • Settings to see what’s actually installed

Home Screen = display. Library/Drawer + Settings = truth.

2. Make yourself a “quarantine” page

Instead of deleting icons you are unsure about:

  1. Create a new, empty Home Screen page.
  2. Drag any suspicious or duplicate icons there:
    • Icons with weird names
    • Icons with custom pictures
    • Icons that do not show notification badges

Live with that page for a day:

  • Anything you never tap from there is safe to delete as a shortcut.
  • Anything you do use from there, you can later pin back to your main page as a clean, known shortcut.

This reduces the “I deleted something and now it’s gone forever” panic.

3. Use notifications to spot the “real” icons

This trick saves a lot of guesswork:

  • When an app sends a notification:
    • iOS: Long‑press the notification and tap the app name at the top.
    • Android: Tap the notification, then go Home.
  • Look at which icon lights up / opens.
    • That is the real app in your layout.
    • Any other matching icons are clones or shortcuts.

Delete the clones first, not the one that matches notification behavior.
This also exposes a con of heavy shortcut usage: some shortcuts never show badges correctly.

4. Decide your priority: aesthetics vs zero-friction

You kind of have to pick a side:

  • Priority: clean, smooth behavior

    • Fewer shortcuts
    • More stock icons
    • Less chance of “missing” apps or slow opens

  • Priority: aesthetics at all cost

    • More shortcuts / themed icons
    • Possible delay when opening
    • Some notification badge weirdness

I slightly disagree with the idea that shortcuts are always a problem. If your main apps are social, notes, camera, etc., and you are okay with a small launch delay, shortcuts are totally fine. They only get painful when:

  • You rely heavily on notification badges
  • You use a ton of banking / 2FA / work apps and need instant reliability

5. Freeze your setup and document it

Not glamorous, but it works:

  1. When your Home Screen looks “acceptable,” take screenshots of every page.
  2. If you ever break things again, you can rebuild by:
    • Opening App Library / Drawer
    • Recreating exactly what you see in your screenshots

This turns the chaos into something you can always roll back to.

6. About using a “product” or pack

If you decide to use a dedicated icon pack or theme (many are sold as a single “product” in app stores), treat it like any other tool:

Pros:

  • Consistent visual style across many apps
  • Usually faster than making icons one by one
  • Often comes with matching wallpapers and widgets

Cons:

  • Rarely covers every single app you have
  • May rely heavily on shortcuts, which reintroduce the badge / delay issue
  • Some theme apps are aggressive and hard to fully undo

Combine that with what @viajeroceleste suggested and you get a strategy: use one reliable pack, then manually fix the 5 to 10 unsupported apps so the whole screen still feels coherent.

If you want more targeted help, post:

  • iOS or Android
  • One app that is “weird” right now (changed icon, missing, or duplicated)

We can walk through only that app as a test case so you do not have to reset your entire Home Screen again. Once that feels predictable, you just repeat the same logic for the rest.