How to create dark icons for iPhone apps

iOS 18 tries to overwrite app icons with dark versions if they don't have Dark Mode-compatible icons. However, this doesn't always work, so you'll need to use a workaround to create dark icons for apps on your iPhone that don't have them.

Note : This workaround comes from Reddit user Straight_Random_2211 , which involves taking the assets (the stock app icon and iOS 18 dark icon background) and creating a new app icon using them, which you then add to your home screen to replace the existing icon when launching the app.

Create shortcut to get dark app icon

First, you’ll need the original icon for the app that’s not compatible with Dark Mode. You can easily get this icon using the Get App Icon shortcut, which pulls up the app icons for a bunch 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 tap Add Shortcut  to add it to your library.

Tap the Get App Icon shortcut to run it. Now, type in the name of the unsupported app and tap Done to search. Then, tap the appropriate app and the shortcut will save the original app icon to the Photos app.

Save iOS 18 dark icon background to iPhone

Next, you need a dark background. This is what we’ll replace the original background of the unsupported app icon with. Since we want all the dark app icons on the home screen to have the same color scheme, it’s best to use iOS’s dark icon background.

Just go to the dark icon background page, press and hold the image, then select Save to Photos to save it to the Photos app.

Create Dark Mode Icon for App

Now that we have the stock app icon and the dark background, creating a Dark Mode icon for your app is easy. We’ll use Remove.bg’s Change Image Background tool to do this, which allows us to remove the white background from the stock app icon and replace it with a dark background.

Go to Remove.bg's Change Image Background tool on your iPhone. Tap Upload Image , tap Photo Library , and select the original app icon you saved to the Photos app above.

Similarly, tap on the Select File button under Background Image and select Photo Library . Then, select the dark icon background you saved earlier.

Once you do this, the tool will create a new app icon with a dark background. Tap Download and tap View when prompted to confirm. This will open the icon in a new tab. Tap and hold the image, then select Save to Photos to save it to your Photos app library.

Tip : You can also tap the Download option in the prompt, but that will save the image to the Files app.

Create shortcut to open application

Once everything is done, the final step is to create an app shortcut for the home screen using the dark icon you just created as its icon.

Open the Shortcuts app and tap the + button in the upper right corner to create a new shortcut.

Next, tap on the Search Actions bar , search for Open App and tap on the appropriate action to add to the shortcut. Tap on App on this action and select the app with the dark icon you just created on the next screen.

Now, tap Open App at the top and select Rename . Enter the name of the app you created the dark icon for here and tap Done .

Tap the name again and select Add to Home Screen . On the next screen, tap the photo icon and select Choose Photo . Now, locate and select the dark app icon in your photo library and tap Choose to use it.

Finally, tap Add in the upper right corner to save the shortcut to your iPhone's home screen.

Once done, you can remove the original app from your home screen. Press and hold the app icon on your home screen, then select Remove App , followed by Remove from Home Screen when prompted to confirm.

Using the workaround above, you can easily create dark icons for any iPhone app that doesn’t offer a dark app icon to match. Besides making app icons dark, you can customize your iPhone home screen to make them large and unlabeled or apply a custom color scheme to match your wallpaper.