Twos

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Customize the nav bar and side menu

iPhoneiPadAndroidWebMacWindowsLinuxWatchPlusUpdated 2026-09-06

The nav bar holds up to five views. Everything else lives in the side menu.

Customizing navigation is part of Twos Plus. Plus

How to Customize Your Nav Bar in Twos App | Twos Watch on YouTube

Why you'd care

Five is a real constraint and a good one. Getting those five right is the difference between an app you move around fluidly and one you hunt through.

The defaults are chosen for someone new, which is almost certainly not what you need after a month.

The 60-second version

Open Settings Appearance & Accessibility Customize navigation, choose your five, and order them.

Choosing well

The test is not "which do I like" but which do I open several times a day.

For most people that is Today, one capture surface, and search. The remaining two are personal: Lists for people who organize, Home for people who review, Calendar for people whose days are scheduled.

Going further

Order matters more than you expect, because positions map to shortcuts. ⌘1 is whatever you put first. See getting around.

Where the bar lives, on web. By default your pinned views, Search and New list sit at the top of the side menu. Settings Appearance & Accessibility Show top navigation bar moves that whole group across the top of the page instead, and the side menu then drops all three so nothing is offered twice.

Neither is more correct. The side menu keeps the page itself uncluttered. The top bar puts navigation where your eyes already are and frees the side menu for lists. Try the one you did not expect to like.

Labels can be hidden, which gains a little space at the cost of learnability. Worth it once you know the icons. The setting is different on each platform:

Web, Mac, Windows, and Linux

Settings Appearance & Accessibility Show navigation labels puts each view's name next to its icon. It only applies to the top bar, so the row is hidden while the bar is off, and labels drop on their own when the window is too narrow for them.

iPhone, iPad, and Android

Settings Appearance & Accessibility has a Nav bar labels row, which shows or hides the text under the bottom tab icons. Labels are on by default.

The side menu is not a demotion. A view you use weekly belongs there. Nav space is for daily use.

Settings that change this

Tips

  • If a nav slot has gone unopened for two weeks, replace it.
  • Do not put Settings in the bar. It is the view you least need to reach quickly.