Blog

What Is Home Screen Rotation?

With some iPhone models, my iPhone 8 Plus, for example, the Home Screen rotates. This places the Dock on the right and all the app and folder icons on the left. With the Home Screen rotated, the iPhone can be used in landscape mode.

However, if you’ve recently upgraded to iOS 14 and noticed the Home Screen no longer rotates, you are not alone. Also, Apple did not take the feature away from you.

Portrait Orientation Lock

One reason the Home Screen no longer rotates is probably that the Portrait Orientation Lock is on. To turn it off, bring up Control Center by swiping down from the top right corner, or up from the bottom of the screen depending on your iPhone model, and tap on the lock icon ().

Home Screen Widgets in iOS 14

Another reason is something new in iOS 14, and that is Home Screen widgets. These widgets come in different sizes and they can take up the space of four, eight, or sixteen app icons. If any of your Home Screens has a widget on them, they will no longer be able to rotate.

Before iOS 14, the Home Screen only needs to worry about app and folder icons that have the same size. When it rotates, the icons stay on the same screen, just in a different place.

However, in iOS 14, the Home Screen might not be able to layout the same widgets and icons on the same screen when it rotates, since these elements come in different sizes.

If Apple still allowed Home Screen rotation, it would mean stuff being pushed off from one screen to another. Understandably this is probably too much user experience disruption from Apple’s perspective. According to their Human Interface Guidelines, the first two of Apple’s design principles are aesthetic integrity and consistency. 

So if you are finding your Home Screen no longer rotates, you’ll likely need to choose between widgets and Home Screen rotation. What is your choice? Let us know in the comments.

Photo by Omid Armin on Unsplash