With per-app settings (introduced in iOS 15), you avoid the one-size-fits-all trap: Email can have larger text, while Instagram can stay at the standard size. You can get cross-fade transitions in the Notes app while also preventing your home screen and app switcher from becoming incredibly slow. And you can increase contrast in a photo editor without affecting your widgets or lock screen.
In iOS 18, you get two updates: Hidden apps aren’t left unattended, and you can adjust cursor blinking behavior in each text-enabled app.
Next, you’ll learn how to add visible and hidden apps to per-app settings, modify all available preferences, including new cursor controls, and remove apps when you want to return to defaults. Read on to give every app on your iPhone exactly the look you need. (These instructions also work for iPadOS.)
Why per-app settings are important on your iPhone
Adjusting text size, bold text, or contrast for the entire iPhone can lead to inconsistencies: some apps ignore system settings, while others end up looking distorted. Per-app settings solve this by allowing you to customize only the apps you choose. For example:
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Text size: You may prefer large text when checking email but normal size when reading Twitter.
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Bold text: Enabling bold labels in an app makes menus easier to parse without forcing bold text everywhere else.
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Button Shapes and Labels: Adding shapes or underlines to tappable text-only buttons or on/off symbols can make small elements easier to identify.
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Contrast and transparency: For graphics or image-heavy editors, increasing the contrast just for that application ensures that controls don’t get lost on colorful backgrounds.
Add apps to customize
In the Settings app, navigate to Accessibility » Settings by app. Then, tap “Add App” to open the Search Apps list, which includes Apple and third-party apps, plus system items like the Home Screen, App Library, and Siri. However, you won’t find any hidden apps here, such as Code Scanner, Print Center, Diagnostics, Field Test, or Remote Control. Live Captions was an option but was removed in iOS 18 as it has a dedicated settings menu in Settings.
If you want to modify an app you’ve hidden, a feature available since iOS 18, tap “Show Hidden Apps” and authenticate so they appear in the list.
Find and tap the app you want to customize and it will immediately appear in the Settings by app list. That means you can only add one app at a time. If you want multiple apps, repeat these steps for each one.
Set preferences for each application
Once an app appears in Settings by app, tap its name to reveal all available options. If it’s an app you’ve hidden, tap “Show Hidden Apps” and authenticate to have it appear in the list.
Each option offers Default, On, and Off options, except for Larger Text, which displays a slider with an option to “Reset font size to default” and Auto Play Animated Images, which is just a toggle switch.
While all options will be available for all apps, not all will apply to the app you’re customizing. For example, turning off autoplay for animated images for Messenger won’t stop GIFs from playing automatically in Facebook chats, but if you turn it off in Messages, you’ll have to press play on GIFs to see them in action.
When you choose Default for an option, it uses the system-wide default set of preferences. For example, if you have Reduce Motion enabled for all of iOS, that will be the default and you can turn it off in specific apps.
Here’s what each setting does:
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Bold text: When enabled, bolds most of the text visible on the screen.
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Larger text: This allows you to increase or decrease the text on the screen to your preferred reading size. It’s linked to the Text Size control in Control Center, where you can adjust the text size just for the app you’re currently in. Changing the size in Settings per app will update the slider in Control Center and vice versa.
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Button shapes: When on, adds shapes around tappable text-only elements to make them look more like buttons.
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On/Off Labels: When activated, it adds the universal “on” and “off” symbols to the switches: a vertical line for on and a circle for off.
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Reduce transparency: When enabled, improves contrast by reducing transparency and blurring some backgrounds to increase readability.
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Increase contrast: When enabled, increases the color contrast between the app’s foreground and background colors.
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Differentiate without color: When enabled, replaces UI elements that rely on color to convey information with alternatives.
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Prefers horizontal text: When enabled, texts displayed vertically, which is common in some languages, will appear horizontally.
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Smart investment: When on, it inverts most screen colors, even in some apps that use dark color styles. It won’t affect photos, videos, and other types of visual media, including app icons.
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Reduce movement: When enabled, it decreases UI movement, including the parallax effect seen on home screen icons.
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Prefers crossfade transitions: When enabled, reduces the movement of UI controls that slide when they appear and disappear. This setting only appears when Reduce Motion is enabled system-wide or only in the app you’re customizing.
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Autoplay Animated Images: When enabled, the Messages app automatically plays animated images, such as GIFs and Live Stickers.
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Autoplay video previews: When enabled, it automatically plays any video preview displayed in apps like the App Store.
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Prefers non-blinking cursor: When enabled, the cursor indicator in text fields will not flash, so you can always see it. This option is available since iOS 18.
Advice: Always test changes by opening (or force closing and reopening) the app after toggling a setting. Some apps may require a restart before you see any of the settings you’ve made.
See it in action
Below you can see what happens when you enable Bold Text, Larger Text, and Smart Flip for the Home Screen and App Library. Here are some things you’ll notice if you try a similar setup:
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App, widget, and folder labels become larger, thicker, and stand out more.
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The text on some app icons will appear in bold, like the date in Calendar.
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Status bar timing seems heavier, which persists every time you’re in any app that displays the status bar.
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Quick actions (long-press menus on icons) display large, bold text for easy reading.
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The wallpaper inverts colors, but apps, widgets, and folder icons remain as they were.
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Similar effects can be seen in Today View, App Library, Notification Center, Lock Screen, Control Center, App Switcher, Face ID Overlays, and Widget Gallery.
When you switch to another app, those settings disappear, keeping all other apps in their standard appearance. This is unless you view the status bar in the app or open the Control Center or Notification Center, which will retain the changes.
For an app like Safari, changing the boldness of text will affect the app’s UI elements such as the address bar, menu settings, tab switcher, bookmarks, history, and home page, but it can also affect some of the text on web pages. Increasing or decreasing the text size will also affect all of those UI elements, but it won’t affect web pages or their reader views, as Safari has its own built-in text resizing for that.
Remove apps from settings by app
If you decide you no longer need custom settings, or if an app update resets things unexpectedly, remove them to return to system defaults:
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Go to Settings » Accessibility » Settings by app.
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Tap “Show hidden apps” and authenticate if necessary.
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Swipe left on the name of the app you want to delete or briefly swipe left and tap “Delete” when it appears.
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Alternatively, tap “Edit” at the top, then tap the minus (–) icon next to the app and confirm with “Delete.”
Deleting the app resets all preferences (text size, bold text, contrast, etc.) to default values, which is much faster than trying to change each option manually for the app.
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Gadget Hacks cover photo.