How to create blank, empty, transparent app icons on your iPhone Home Screen, no jailbreak required

Whether you want to show off your beautiful wallpaper or simply want your setup to look different from the millions of other iPhones out there, one of the best ways to do that is to use widgets, create a blank Home Screen with no app icons, or add blank icons to your Home Screen. In this tutorial, we will focus on the latter.

These invisible icons will allow you to create empty spaces on your Home Screen to either let the wallpaper shine or arrange your app icons in a very specific way. For example, you can place all the empty icons on the top, which will push your meaningful app icons down, making them easier to reach when using your iPhone in one-handed mode.

This tutorial will show you how to create blank, transparent iPhone icons with no jailbreak required.

How to use blank, empty, and transparent app icons on iPhone Home Screen

How to create empty spaces on your iPhone Home Screen

Method 1: App icons that resemble your wallpaper

We have a short video tutorial as well as a written one. As per your preference, feel free to follow any that’s comfortable.

Follow these steps to create blank app icon spaces on your iPhone Home Screen:

1) Tap and hold any empty area on your iPhone Home Screen to enter wiggle mode – the mode when all app icons start shaking. Once in wiggle mode, swipe left until you reach the far right Home Screen page, which should be completely empty of icons, except for the Dock. Take a screenshot of that empty page.

2) On your iPhone, go to iempty.tooliphone.net using the default Safari browser. Don’t use Chrome or any other browser.

3) Scroll down a bit on the page and select the green Add empty icons option.

4) Scroll down and tap Choose File. Find the screenshot you took in step 1, and upload it. The site will show you a preview of your wallpaper. Tap the green Send button.

Select wallpaper

This process allows the website to create seemingly transparent icons, which in reality, are pieces of your wallpapers used as icons. Because these icons are identical to specific areas of your wallpaper, they give the impression of transparency.

5) Once your screenshot has been uploaded, scroll down a bit, and look for the Options section. For security reasons, We recommend using the Bookmark option.

Select icon generation method

Scroll down a bit more, and you will see a grid of icons and your wallpaper in the background. This is where the tedious work begins. For each icon that you want to leave blank on your Home Screen, you will have to select one of the generated blank icons and add it as a bookmark to your Home Screen.

For example, start with the 1×1 icon by tapping on it. Then scroll down and tap the green Add 1 icon button. You will get a preview of the empty icon.

Generate blank icon

Tap the Share button and select Add to Home Screen, and then select Add on the next screen. The blank icon will be added to your Home Screen.

Add blank icon to home screen

6) Repeat the process for all icons you want to make transparent on your Home Screen.

7) When done, rearrange your app icons in a way that fits whatever you want to accomplish.

Empty icons on Home screen

The downside is that if you change your wallpaper and want to preserve empty spaces on your Home Screen, you will have to go through the process again. Another downside is that accidentally tapping any of the blank icons will launch Safari. This is not a dealbreaker by any means, but this is still something to keep in mind.

In my testing, I found that this method works best with wallpapers with solid or gradient colors. If you choose an image with a lot of colors and activity, the empty icons may not look hundred percent blank.

Method 2: Create blank app icons using Shortcuts

Create blank or invisible icons on iPhone Home Screen to organize apps with no jailbreak

Besides the above method, you can also use the Shortcuts app to create blank iPhone icons, which will add space before, after, or between your apps.

There are a few keys to making this work correctly. One of them is that you’ll need a plain background or at least one that you can match the color of the icon. Otherwise, you’ll be able to see it, and the point is lost.

For this example, I used a plain black background. You can simply download a black image from the internet and use it as your iPhone wallpaper. Make sure you don’t delete this black image, as you will need it later in step 7.

Next, open up the Shortcuts app and follow these steps to create the blank icon:

1) Tap the plus button (+) from the top right to create a new shortcut.

Create new shortcut in iPhone Shortcuts app

2) You can leave the shortcut as it is without any actions. But, if you want that invisible icon to do something when you tap it on your screen, like open your Photos or add a Calendar event, you can select one of those actions.

3) Tap the New Shortcut button on the top and choose Rename.

Rename shortcut on iPhone

4) Enter the name for the shortcut using invisible characters. You can do this easily by copying and pasting the characters between the brackets below. Do not copy the brackets. Tap done on the keyboard.
[⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀]
Add an empty name to shortcut
5) Tap the tiny arrow down button from the top and choose Add to Home Screen.

Add shortcut to Home Screen on iPhone

6) Tap the smaller shortcut icon and pick Choose Photo.

Choose photo to add as invisible shortcut icon

7) Next, pick the same black image that you used as your wallpaper and tap Choose.

Pick a black image for shortcut icon

8) Finally, tap Add.

Add the shortcut icon to iPhone Home Screen

That’s it! You have successfully created a shortcut with an empty name, having the same icon as your iPhone wallpaper. This basic trick makes the icon invisible and gives the impression of an empty area on the Home Screen. To see it, press an empty area on the Home Screen, and all apps, including this shortcut icon, will start jiggling and have a remove button (-) on them.

Invisible icons on iPhone Home Screen

You can simply move this shortcut icon wherever you want it, just as you would move any other app on your screen.

You can continue adding that same shortcut to your Home Screen to create more spaces. Or, just edit the shortcut you created by tapping the three dots icon and following steps 5 to 8 to repeatedly add the same shortcut to your Home Screen multiple times to create several invisible icons. Important: Make sure to change the shortcut name by pasting more invisible characters or removing one.

As you might have figured out, if you change the wallpaper, these icons will become visible! In that case, you can press them and remove them from the Home Screen.

Having more space between your apps is a great way to declutter your screens. You can even use the blank iPhone icons to arrange your apps in cool patterns. Is this a trick you plan to try out with the Shortcuts app? Let us know!

If you have come up with a clever wallpaper and icon placement combo, please feel free to share your creation in the comments section below.

Other ways to customize your iPhone Home Screen