11 Ways to Customize Your iPhone’s Status Bar Without Jailbreak « iOS and iPhone :: Gadget Hacks

You see the status bar almost everywhere on your iPhone, and it almost always looks the same. But there are some tricks you can use to spice things up a bit, without having to jailbreak your iPhone.

The background of the status bar in iOS is transparent, so you’ll see different colors and gradients as you switch between apps. Some developers hide the status bar entirely in their apps, such as for games and media viewers. You cannot change the color of your status bar manually without affecting the rest of the system, such as when you use dark mode, color filtersY other tools that change the overall appearance.

By default, you’ll almost always see the time, cellular signals, Wi-Fi icon, and battery in the status bar. On Touch ID models, it will also show the cell phone provider, which users of Face ID models can see from the lock screen, notification center, or control center.

You’ll also see icons that automatically appear and disappear based on your activity, like a navigation symbol when you’re using driving directions, a green dot when your camera is in use, a lock when your iPhone is locked, a clock when an alarm goes off. is set, an airplane when Airplane mode is enabled, and the AirPlay symbol when streaming media to another device. Other images you’ll see periodically include SharePlay, headphones, network activity, and the Personal Hotspot chain.

For something more permanent, try some of the following customizations.

1. Show battery percentage

You can enable or disable the feature via Settings -> Battery -> Battery percentage. Face ID models must have iOS 16 or later installed, and it doesn’t matter if Battery Percentage is on or off, you’ll still see the one with the % sign in Control Center. Touch ID models can run iOS 16 or earlier.

2. Bold all text

A little-known feature will allow you to bold all the text that appears in the status bar, such as carrier name, time, and battery percentage. It has been around since iOS 15 when Configuration per application it was introduced, but it’s pretty hidden since it’s probably the last place you’d expect to find an option to change a system-wide preference.

The trick is to set your home screen to bold text. Doing so will make the home screen text bold, but the status bar will be mapped to the home screen, so the status bar text will also appear bold everywhere, including the start screen. blocking. Take a look at our complete guide to see what else is affected by making the status bar bold.

3. Show the location services icon

By default, the location arrow icon appears in the status bar whenever an app is using your location. For example, it should always be visible when you open apps like Maps, and it will appear briefly when you open Weather to check the local forecast. Anytime an app requests your location, it will appear.

There’s not much you can change about it, but you can customize whether the arrow appears in the status bar when various system services request your location. Visit Settings -> Privacy and security -> Location services -> System services -> Status bar icon, and turn it on or off.

When enabled, an arrow will appear in the status bar whenever an enabled service above the status bar icon switch requests your location. These include services like Find My iPhone, Wi-Fi Calling, and HomeKit.

4. Enable Low Power Mode

Turning on low power mode will make the battery icon in your status bar yellow. It’s a small change, but a change nonetheless. If you have a Touch ID model, enabling Low Power Mode automatically enables the battery percentage, as seen above, so you can kill two birds with one stone.

Now, enabling Low Power Mode has its ups and downs. It will turn off only once the battery reaches 80% charge, but won’t turn off if you enable it when it’s already at 80% or higher. It also stops or reduces features that you may want or need to use frequently, such as 5G access, screen brightness, always-on display, screen refresh rates, and email retrieval.

see our complete guide on low power mode To discover more.

Please note that the battery icon is affected by color changes you apply throughout the system, as invert classic Y zoom filters, so you can make the yellow a different color, like blue, white, or black. With Low Power Mode turned off, you can get colors like purple, aqua, and more.

5. Set a custom focus icon

Whenever you start a focus, you’ll see its icon in the status bar until you or iOS stop it. If you want a specific icon in your status bar to show your current mood, remind you of something, or motivate you, to name a few reasons, activate its associated focus.

If one of the default focus icons doesn’t work for you, such as the car icon from Driving, the space rocket from Games, and the crescent moon from Do Not Disturb, create your own focus with the icon you like.

Go to Settings -> Focus, then hit the plus (+) sign. You may need to remove a focus if you have already reached ten total focuses. Choose “Custom”, give the focus a name, and then choose the image. There are currently 47 icons, including a smiley face, snowflake, fire, bicycle, and paw print.

You can then customize other aspects of the approach, such as scheduling. If you want it to act like it doesn’t even have focus, if you only see the icon, you can choose not to mute notifications from people and apps. If you don’t set a schedule, you can manually activate it through the Control Center.

Other things you can customize

6. Enable a VPN to see the VPN icon and browse the Internet more securely.
7. Enable Portrait Orientation Lock to see your lock icon and prevent apps from using landscape mode. (Appears in Control Center on Face ID models only.)
8. Activate two SIM to see two cellular icons and use two different plans. T-Mobile gives three month free trials for eSIM compatible phones.
9. Enable call forwarding on GSM plans to see your phone icon. (Appears in Control Center on Face ID models only.)
10. enable voice control to see your microphone icon and control your iPhone using words and phrases.
11. enable airplane mode to see your airplane icon and disable cellular, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.

Cover photo and screenshots by Justin Meyers/Gadget Hacks

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