iOS 18 tries to override app icons with dark versions if they don’t have dark mode-compatible icons. However, this doesn’t always work. So, I use a workaround to create dark icons for apps on my iPhone that don’t have dark mode.
Get Shortcut to Get Dark App Icons First, you need the original icon for the app that isn’t dark mode-compatible. Getting this icon is easy with the Get App Icon shortcut, which pulls app icons for a plethora 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 the name of the unsupported app in the input prompt and tap Done to view it. Then, tap the matching app and the shortcut will save the app’s original icon to your Photos app. Save the iOS 18 Dark Icon Background to Your iPhone
Next, you’ll need a dark background. This is what we’ll be replacing the original background of our unsupported app icon with. Since we want all the dark app icons on the home screen to be the same tone, it’s best to use the iOS dark icon background.
Just access the Dark Icon Background page, long-tap on the image, and select Save to Photos to save it to the Photos app.
Create a Dark Mode Icon for an App
Now that we have the original app icon and dark background, it’s easy to create a dark mode icon for your app. We’ll use Remove.bg’s Change Image Background tool to do this, which lets us remove the white background from the original app icon and replace it with our dark background image.
Go to Remove.bg’s Change Image Background tool on your iPhone. Tap Upload Image, choose Photos Library, and select the original app icon saved in the Photos app above.
Create an app shortcut to open an app
After everything is done, the last step is to create an app shortcut for the home screen that uses the dark icon you just created as its icon.
Open the Shortcuts app and tap the + button in the top-right corner to create a new shortcut.
Next, tap the Search action bar, look for Open App and tap the matching action to add it to the shortcut. Tap the App text on this action and select the app whose dark icon you just created on the next screen.
Now, tap the Open App text at the top and select Rename. Type the name of the app you created the dark icon for here and click Done.
Tap Rename and click Add to Home Screen. On the next screen, tap the Photos icon and click Choose Photo. Now, locate and select the dark app icon in your Photos library and click Choose to use it.
Finally, tap Add in the upper-right corner to save the shortcut to your iPhone’s home screen.
After doing so, you can remove the original app from the home screen. Tap and hold the app’s icon on the home screen, then choose Remove App, followed by Remove from Home Screen at the confirmation prompt.
Using the solutions above, you can easily create a dark icon for any iPhone app that doesn’t offer a dark app icon to match the original. Besides making the app icon dark, you can also customize your iPhone’s home screen to make it larger and label-free or apply a custom color tint to match the wallpaper.