Create Home Screens for Specific Focus Modes on the iPad

Learn how to create specific Home Screens for Focus modes on the iPad.

In additions to customizing notifications with Focus Modes, you can also customize your Home Screens. When you are in a specific Focus mode, you could only show the apps you want to focus on and hide all your other apps. You do this by creating Home Screens with the apps you want on them and then have only that Home Screen show when you are in a specific Focus. See how to hide and show Home Screens based on Focus modes in this video for the iPad.

Video TranscriptIn this video, we’re going to look at how we can customize our Home Screens for a specific Focus mode. As an example, what we’re able to do is show a specific Home Screen with specific apps when we’re in a specific Focus mode. So if you’re working, maybe you want to see all of your work apps. When you’re reading, you just want to see your apps that pertain to reading. This was introduced with iPadOS 15. Let’s see how this works. Let’s go to my iPad.

Now, if you’re not familiar with Focus mode, I recommend you take a look at my video on Focus mode. In this video, we’re just going to look at how we can customize our Home Screens based on specific Focus modes.

Let’s go open up my Settings app. This is where we can set up our Focus modes. We go over to Focus, and you can see we have a number of different Focus modes here. What I’m going to do is set up a Home Screen for my Reading Focus mode. So when I’m reading, I only see the apps that pertain to reading, maybe the News app and the Books app. If I had the Kindle app on here, I could include the Kindle app. I only want to see those apps that pertain to reading.

So how do we do that? Well, the first thing is, is we need to create our Home Screen. So now let’s go back over to my Home Screen. I’m going to press on the Home button. And now what I need to do is create a new Home Screen for my reading apps.

Now, before I do that, you’re going to see I have the Books app here on this first Home Screen. I want to leave this on my first Home Screen, but I also want to have it on my Home Screen that I’m going to create for my Focus. So basically what I need to do is I need to duplicate it. Well, we can now do this, we can now duplicate apps and place them on separate Home Screens. So I’m just going to leave this Books app here and now I’m going to create a new Home Screen. So I’m going to long press here. The apps are jiggling. And now I just swipe over to the left where I can create a new Home Screen. The next thing that I recommend doing is just going to the App Library.

So I’m going to swipe over to the left again. I’m looking at my App Library from here. I can see all of my apps in a list. So now what I want to do is I want to drag the apps that I want on that Home Screen, out of the library here. So I want the Books app. So I just tap and hold and I drag it to that Home Screen.

Let’s go back over to the library, swipe over to the left, swipe down. I want to have the News app. So I swipe up until I find News, tap and hold and I drag it. We need to put it back on that Home Screen with the Books app. So now I have both of those apps there. Again, if I had the Kindle app, I could add the Kindle app or any other app.

Now I just tap on Done, and being that I drag those out of my app library. I was able to duplicate them. So you’re going to see I have the Books app here on this Home screen, and then if I go to the first Home Screen, I also have the Books app. So now I have my Home Screen set up.

The next thing I’m going to do is I’m going to hide it. I only want to show it when I’m in that Focus. So how do we do that? We just tap and hold in this area again, it starts jiggling. And then we tap on our Home Screen bar. We have my reading apps here. I just tap on the check mark to uncheck it. And that Home Screen is now hidden. So I tap on Done. And if I swipe over to the left, you’re going to see it is no longer there.

So now what I want to do is I want to show that specific Home Screen when I’m reading. So how do we do that? Well, now we have to go back over to our Focus mode settings. So I go back over to my Settings app. We go over to Focus and then we go over to Reading. Under Reading, you’re going to see Home Screen. This is where I can set up which Home Screens I want to see. So we have Custom Pages here. I turn this on. Now all I do is I just tap on the Home Screens that I want. I’m just going to tap on this Home Screen. So I tap on it. It puts a blue check mark in the lower right-hand corner. So now when I go into that Reading focus, The only Home Screen I’m going to see is this Home Screen here.

So let’s see how this works. I tap on Done. We’re going to go back over to my Home Screen. That particular Home Screen is hidden. You can see it as no longer here, but now let’s go into my Reading focus. Watch what happens. I swipe down to go to my Control Center. I go over to Focus. I tap on the word Focus because I want to switch focuses. I don’t want to turn it on and off. I want to switch Focuses. So I tap on the word Focus, and then we go over to Reading.

When I tap on Reading, you’re going to see that my only Home Screen now is going to be that Home Screen with those two apps, the Books app and the News app. So I tap on them and now the only Home Screen is the Home Screen with these two apps. I swipe over to the right. I go to my Notification Center, I swipe over the left, it takes me to my App Library. All of those other Home Screens are hidden.

Now I am done reading. I want to go back to my other apps. I want to hide this Home Screen. I go back up to my Control Center. We turn off our Reading by tapping on the icon. And now we can see all of my other apps.

So you could create a focus mode for photography as an example, and then create a Home Screen that just has your camera apps, as well as your photo editing apps. When you’re ready to shoot photography or edit your photos, just go into that focus mode. All of your apps will appear.

So that’s how we can set a Home Screen to show with specific Focus modes. What you’ll want to do is create your Focus mode and then also create a Home Screen with the apps that you want in that Focus mode. Once you create that screen, that Home Screen with those specific apps, you go back into your Focus mode that you created, and then under Home Screens, you’re going to be able to customize it, just make sure that that Home Screen is selected when you’re in that Focus mode.

And then you can also hide your other Home Screen, so then only that Home Screen shows when your in that particular Focus mode.

So that’s how you can customize your Home Screens for your Focus modes on the iPad.