Personalization — themes, icons & effects

This page is about how the sky — your home screen — looks: its colours, how each star — an app, folder, or shortcut you've placed — is drawn, the picture it wears, and the light that plays around it. Most of it lives in Settings › background & light, with the moving effects in Settings › rings & effects.

These settings belong to the sky you're on, so each of your skies can look different. The icon set is the exception: it is the same on every sky.

#Themes — one colour set for the whole sky

What it is. A theme is a named colour set. Picking one restyles the highlights, the dock, comets, and new stars at once. A live preview card sits above the row, so you see the change before you leave the page.

The eight. In order: "clean", "mono", "pastel", "rainbow", "daytime", "mono inverted", "iridescent", and "neon". Two do more than set fixed colours. "iridescent" is live — its hue drifts with the time of day. "mono inverted" flips the sky to light paper; leaving it returns the sky to black.

Free vs Gold. "clean", "mono", and "pastel" are free. "rainbow", "daytime", "mono inverted", "iridescent", and "neon" are (Gold) — tapping one without Gold opens the upgrade screen instead of applying.

Where to find it. Settings › background & light › theme.

#Light colours — fine-tuning on top of a theme

Accent. One colour for rings, labels, the clock, and finger trails. The default is a near-white. Picking a theme overwrites this with the theme's own accent, so use the picker to adjust on top of a theme. Find it at Settings › background & light › accent. Turning on high contrast overrides the accent with pure white — see Accessibility & motion.

More light rows. The same "light colors · fine-tuning on top of the theme" group also holds the talisman ink, the cast glow, and the sky's own background colour, each opening a colour picker.

#Star style — how a star is drawn

What it is. Four ways to draw each app star: "app icons" (each app's own icon, the default), "monochrome" (one flat tint), "text only" (the label alone, no picture), and "inverted mono". Find it at Settings › background & light › star style.

Usage as light. Turn on "usage as light — loved stars burn brighter" and the apps you open most glow brighter, so your everyday stars stand out. Find it under the star-style row.

#Icons & icon packs

What it is. How a star or an app gets its picture. There are two layers, and they are independent.

Per-star vs per-app. A per-star icon dresses one point on one ring. A per-app icon dresses the app itself, so it looks the same everywhere — in the full app list, in the quick A–Z picker, and on any star without an icon of its own. The per-app choice is system-wide on purpose.

Where the pictures come from. Three sources: Zenith's own bundled set of eight symbols ("star", "moon", "sun", "comet", "orbit", "spark", "eye", "rune"); any icon pack you've installed; or your own cropped image. Icon packs are free — Zenith reads installed Zenith, Nova, and ADW packs, listing official Zenith packs first. In Settings › background & light › icon set, "get zenith icon packs on the store →" opens a Play Store search; once you have a Zenith pack installed, it reads "see more zenith icon packs →". Using your own image is (Gold): the button reads "✦ choose image…" and opens the upgrade screen until you have Gold.

Choosing an icon. For one star, open the "◈ change icon" chooser from that star's editor; for a whole app, use "◈ set icon" in the full app list. The chooser is titled "◈ icon for <name>" and offers the Zenith set, your installed packs, and "choose image…". Its "get zenith icon packs →" link opens the store too. Beside a big pack, "browse all →" opens the full pack, where you can search every icon in it. To clear a custom icon, use "reset icon". Set the default pack for all apps at Settings › background & light › icon set.

#Light & effects

The effects live in Settings › rings & effects.

Sparks. "birth sparks" throws small bursts of sparks across the sky — when a star launches, a ring or folder opens, a talisman is cast, a star is removed, and more. Despite the name, adding a star throws none. It is on by default; off, no bursts fire at all. While it is on, a "spark intensity" picker sets how big each burst is: "twinkle", "gentle", "lively", and "🎆 sparkler". The top "sparkler" tier is (Gold); the rest are free.

Trails. "light trails & comet" draws a glowing trail behind your finger while you drag. The "comet" in its name is part of that finger trail, not a notification. It is on by default. A "trail sustain" slider sets how long the trail lingers, from "twinkle only" up to "permanent". At "permanent", the whole trail stays while your finger is down. The finger trail has its own thickness and glow sliders too.

Stars & orbits. Separate sliders set the line thickness and the glow of stars and their orbits — an orbit being the ring a star sits on. Two more switches sit here: "show dock buttons (add · re-place · edit · remove)" — the edit buttons shown while a ring is open — and "show corner & edge hints".

Twinkle. "✨ twinkle — sparkles follow your fingertip" scatters sparkles under your finger as it moves, from 0 (off) to 100 (dense). Twinkle is (Gold).

When effects are calmed. Turning on "reduce motion" in accessibility overrides sparks and trails off, and "remove glows" overrides every glow slider. See Accessibility & motion.

#See also.

Stars, nodes & regions · Fonts & text size · Backgrounds & My Sky · Zenith Gold — what unlocks in the launcher (Gold)