How to hide apps from your iPhone home screen and search results?
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(Pocket-lint) – Did you know you can hide apps on your iPhone so they don’t appear on your home screen? You can even hide them from search results on your iPhone, without uninstalling them. And to find an app you’ve hidden, just swipe to the last page of your iPhone’s home screen to open the App Library. Here’s what you need to know.
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Why hide an app?
You can pile a lot of apps on your iPhone home screen and clutter it with icons. But Apple gives you ways to manage and navigate your home screen. You can move apps into folders, for example, and you can hide them completely from the home screen, without deleting the app or erasing any of your saved data. After hiding an app, you can still quickly open it by going to the app library screen. But if you want to hide it from search results, you can do that too.
How to hide apps on your iPhone home screen?
There are several ways to hide apps on your iPhone without uninstalling them. You can hide apps individually or hide a page of apps all at once.
Hide a single iPhone app
- Find the app you want to hide and hold your finger on it.
- When the options menu appears, tap Delete app.
- Find and select the “Delete app” option.
- Select the Remove from Home screen option.
- The icon will disappear from your home screen. You’ll still see it in the App Library.
- Unhide it: Find it in the app library, tap and hold it, then select Add to Home screen.
Hide an application page
- Press and hold your finger specifically on the dots at the bottom of your home screen.
- Those that indicate the page you are viewing.
- Hold this pressure until your iPhone displays all the pages at once.
- If all the apps are wiggling without you zooming out, lift your finger and tap the dots again).
- Find the app page you want to hide.
- Tap the check mark below the app to make it disappear.
- Tap Done in the top right corner.
- You should no longer see the pages you unchecked. But the apps will still be in the app library.
How to find apps in the App Library
All hidden apps can be accessed in the App Library – a running list of all apps on your iPhone. To access the app library, go to the very last page of your home screen. When you want to use a hidden app, you can easily open it from there.
Does hiding an app delete its data?
No. Hiding an iPhone app does not delete its data.
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Can we unhide an application?
Yes, you can make it disappear at any time. To unhide a hidden app, go to the app library and find the app. Touch and hold the icon, then drag it to the left.
How to Hide Apps from iPhone Search Results
Besides the app library, you can also find hidden apps by swiping down on the home screen and searching for them. However, you can prevent apps from showing up in search results. This is useful for privacy reasons. All you have to do is open the Settings app and scroll down to tap Siri and Search. In the menu that opens, scroll down and select the app you want to hide from search. Tap the Show app in search switch so that it turns gray and is disabled.
From now on, this application will no longer appear in search results.
Written by Maggie Tillman.