Philips Hue has a new dark icon for iOS 18

I’m not really familiar with the Android world, but I could imagine that something like this has existed there for some time. With iOS 18, Apple has expanded Dark Mode and now also offers darkening on the home screen. To be more precise, app icons can be darkened. However, this still requires the help of the app developers in some cases, including Philips Hue.

In general, Apple has two different ways of displaying app icons in a dark version. Firstly, developers have the option of equipping their apps with corresponding icon variants, which are then displayed on the home screen in dark mode. Apple attempts to automatically recognise and darken the background of the icon for non-customised apps. However, this does not work particularly well with Philips Hue, as the following two screenshots show:

In the first image you can see the normal home screen, the second image shows the home screen in dark mode. Apple’s automatic recognition is far from perfect, the Hue icon is displayed just a touch paler.

But now it gets interesting. With iOS 18, Apple offers a new option that displays the app icons larger and without the app name. And here the Hue icon is actually displayed dark. Why and why? I have no idea.

How to activate dark mode for the iOS 18 home screen

1. Long press on the home screen
2. Tap on ‘Edit’ at the top left
3. Select ‘Customise’
4. Make the desired settings

If you choose the ‘Automatic’ option, the dark icons will always be displayed on the home screen when your iPhone or iPad is using dark mode. As you know, this can be done either manually or via a schedule at night.