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This iOS 18 bookshelf trend for Home Screens is ridiculously cute

There’s a new Home Screen trend brewing, and it’s something made possible by two changes in iOS 18. Get ready for the cuteness of iPhone bookshelf wallpapers and the Home Screen layouts they make possible.

New features spark bookshelf Home Screen layouts

iOS 18 introduces new ways to customize your iPhone and make it more personal than ever.

One such change is that app icons can now occupy any free space on the Home Screen. They don’t have to fill the whole screen. So if you want apps on the bottom of the screen but no higher, now you can do that. Another change lets you hide the app names and enlarge icons.

These newfound freedoms have sparked the start of a new trend: bookshelf Home Screens.

Home Screen shared by @ikristin04 on Threads

It’s not a viral craze or anything (yet), but bookshelf Home Screens are ticking up in popularity.

The idea: use a bookshelf wallpaper on your iPhone, with app icons scattered around the various shelves.

Creators fueling the bookshelf trend

There are a variety of different bookshelf designs already out there. Most that we found were coming from one creator on Threads: Kristin Moore (@ikristin04), who also has an Etsy shop where you can buy a bookshelf template to customize yourself.

Another user posted a walkthrough on TikTok detailing how she created her own bookshelf wallpaper with Canva.

iOS 18 bookshelf wallpapers
Thread with wallpaper samples

As you can see from the examples above, the cuteness is strong with this trend.

Funnily enough, bookshelf wallpapers are extremely reminiscent of Apple’s old iBooks and Newsstand designs. Who knows? Maybe Apple will revisit that design as a new built-in Home Screen option in a future iOS update.

In the meantime, if bookshelf Home Screens really take off, I’m interested to see if any app developers capitalize on this trend like Widgetsmith did in the iOS 14 days. Right now, the tools for creating bookshelf wallpapers are very limited.

What do you think of the bookshelf Home Screen layouts? Will you make one of your own? Let us know in the comments.

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Avatar for Ryan Christoffel Ryan Christoffel

Ryan got his start in journalism as an Editor at MacStories, where he worked for four years covering Apple news, writing app reviews, and more. For two years he co-hosted the Adapt podcast on Relay FM, which focused entirely on the iPad. As a result, it should come as no surprise that his favorite Apple device is the iPad Pro.

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