Rumor suggests iOS 18 will bring long-desired Android feature to iPhones

Thanks to a possible feature coming in iOS 18, iPhones (like the iPhone SE 3, available refurbished from Amazon for $229.94) may feel more similar to Android devices than ever before.

Citing "sources familiar with the matter" and piggybacking on prior mentions of a "more customizable" interface from Mark Gurman, MacRumors claims that the next version of iOS will allow users to more freely arrange their apps across their iPhone homescreen. While apps will apparently still be locked to a grid, iOS 18 may bring a feature to insert blank spaces in that grid to space apps across the homescreen.

Currently, the only way to create spaces is through various workarounds, including using the Shortcuts apps to make a blank widget or using a third-party app like Widgy to do the same. However, this rumor claims that blank spaces will be built into iOS 18, meaning third-party tricks won't be necessary.

Apple users have asked for the ability to freely arrange app icons since early versions of iOS. The lack of app arrangement options has long been a point of contention between iOS and Android; Android has allowed users to arrange their apps wherever they want (though often restricted to a grid) since its inception. Homescreen customization remains a selling point for Android smartphones (like the Google Pixel 8 Pro, available at Amazon for $749.00).

Prior to the introduction of widgets in iOS 14 (another feature Android phones had long before Apple's handsets), the only way to insert blank spaces between apps on an iPhone or arrange apps outside the rigid, ordered default grid was to jailbreak an iPhone and install a tweak that freed up app arrangement.

This rumor should be taken with a grain of salt. Gurman did not go into detail concerning what he meant by a more customizable homescreen, and the "sources familiar with the matter" may well turn out to be bunk. However, Apple will likely unveil iOS 18 at its WWDC event in June.