My ancient iPhone XS has a new lease on life thanks to ChatGPT’s suggestion about reviving it with a new battery.
Now that my baby is renewed and full of renewed vigor, I wanted to update my home screen. With three pages full of apps I use every day and a few I forgot I even downloaded, I realized it was time for me to engage in some digital decluttering. With a simple prompt ("How can I make my iPhone screen home screen look and feel better?"), ChatGPT advised me on how to make my home screen look less like a jumbled mess and more like a highly organized app epicenter.
I didn’t just rearrange my apps — I created new widgets and adopted a fitting wallpaper that made finding everything a simple task and looking at my home screen easier on the eyes.
Decluttering and improved app organization
The first thing ChatGPT told me to do was simple: only keep what I use every day on my home screen. So I rebuilt it from scratch.
I moved my most-used apps — Messages, Mail, Discord, Slack, Chrome, Notes, YouTube and Twitch — to the bottom of the screen, right where my thumb naturally lands. No more stretching, no more hunting.
Everything else got pushed up (or cut entirely).
I cleared out apps I hadn’t touched in months — random restaurant apps, old social accounts, even a few dating apps buried three screens deep. If I didn’t recognize the last time I used it, it was gone.
The results were immediate. My phone feels faster and cleaner. Finally, I’m not scrolling past clutter just to get to what I actually need.
It’s a small change, but it completely reset how I use my iPhone.
New widgets and a fresh wallpaper
Confession: I barely use my widgets. Whenever I accidentally swipe to the left of my home screen, I think, “Oh! Widgets! I forgot they go here.”
ChatGPT helped me rethink my approach to using widgets by pushing me to delete the ones that don’t benefit me and keep/add the ones that aid me the most. With a newfound focus on actually utilizing my widgets, I asked ChatGPT "What widgets should I use daily?"
Afterward, I followed the chatbot’s lead to rebuild my widget page to include the following:
- A Calendar widget for daily reminders
- A Weather widget for quick check-ins on the daily forecast
- A Wallet widget to keep track of my connected card accounts and balance details
- A Maps widget to track my ETA and quickly look up directions
- A Battery widget to get a glance at my iPhone’s current charge status
- A Sleep widget to track my sleeping habits and review my sleep schedule
- A widget that tracks my app usage across the categories of Social, Productivity & Finance, and Other
ChatGPT also introduced me to “Smart Stack,” which I somehow didn’t even know existed (a pretty humbling moment for a tech guy). Now my widgets are stacked by relevance and shift throughout the day, so the ones I need are always easier to access.
To wrap up the refresh, ChatGPT suggested choosing a wallpaper that’s not too bright or too dark — I went with beige. It also recommended keeping widget colors neutral for a more cohesive look (yes, also beige).
Its advice to “pick a theme, not a gimmick” really stuck with me — and ended up guiding the entire redesign of my home screen.
The takeaway
Even though my iPhone XS feels like a relic compared to today’s newer models, I still love it — and I’ve found ways to make it feel fresh again.
Instead of relying on widgets, I focused on reworking my home screen layout. Rethinking where my apps live made a bigger difference than I expected.
Using prompts like “Design a minimalist iPhone screen for productivity” or “Create a home screen layout that reduces distractions,” I was able to get clear, practical ideas from ChatGPT — and actually put them to use.
