While there’s no way to completely hide apps on an iPhone, you can make them harder to find. Hiding apps will also clear up space your home screen, so you don’t have to see apps that you don’t use very often. Here are several ways to hide apps on your iPhone’s home screen, Siri suggestions, and you App Store purchase history.
To hide an app on your iPhone, go to your Home Screen and tap and hold any app. Then select Edit Home Screen and drag the app on top of another app. Finally, open the folder and drag the app you want to hide to the right side in order to create a new folder window.
While this method is good for hiding apps on your Home Screen, you can also remove them from your Home Screen completely.
To hide apps on your iPhone using the App Library, go to the Home Screen and tap and hold the app that you want to hide.
Then select Remove App from the pop-up menu. Finally, tap Remove from Home Screen to hide the app in your App Library.
Note: These steps will only work if you are running iOS 14 or later. If you want to know how to update your iPhone, check out our step-by-step guide here.
To add apps back to your Home Screen, tap and hold the app and select Add to Home Screen. You can also tap and hold an app in the search results and drag it to add it back to your Home Screen at any time.
Note: All the apps on your iPhone will appear in the App Library, so this is the most you can hide an app.
If you want to find out other ways to customize your iPhone, check out our step-by-step guide article on how to add widgets to your iPhone home screen.
While moving an app to the App Library is a good way to hide it, you can make an app even harder to find by hiding it from your iPhone’s search results. Here’s how:
To hide apps from your iPhone’s search results, go to Settings > Siri & Search. Then scroll down, tap the app’s name, and turn off Show App in Search. You can also turn off all the other settings to stop the app from showing up anywhere on your phone.
If you are hiding an app from your search results, you might also want to turn off notifications for the app. Here’s how:
To turn off notifications for an app on your iPhone, go to Settings > Notifications.
Then scroll down, select the app, and tap the slider next to Allow Notifications. You will know it is turned off when the slider is gray.
To hide an app from your App Store history, open the App Store on your iPhone and tap the Today tab. Then select your profile icon in the top-right corner and then select Purchased. Finally, swipe left on an app and tap Hide and then Done.
If you would rather remove an app entirely, check out our step-by-step guide on how to delete an app from your iPhone.
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You can fit a lot of apps on your iPhone's home screen. While this is great for quickly accessing any app you might need, it can also clutter up your screen with icons.
Luckily, Apple gives you a variety of ways to manage your home screen. Not only can you move apps and put them into folders, but you can also hide them from the home screen completely.
Doing this won't erase any of your saved data, and you can still quickly open the apps by heading to the App Library screen. If you want even more privacy, you can hide apps from search.
Here are a few ways to hide apps on your iPhone.
Quick tip: If you're looking to delete apps from your iPhone to save storage space, check out our step-by-step guide.
How to hide apps from your iPhone's home screenThere are two ways to remove apps from the home screen without uninstalling them. You can hide the apps one by one, or hide a whole page of apps in one go.
Any app you hide will be sent to the App Library; an organized list of every app on your iPhone that you can find by swiping all the way to the very last page of your home screen. When you actually want to use a hidden app, open it from there.
To hide a single iPhone app1. Find the app you want to hide and hold your finger down on it.
2. When the menu of options appears, tap Remove App.
3. Select the Remove from Home Screen option.
Once hidden, the app icon disappears from your home screen but you can still see it in the App Library. Abigail Abesamis Demarest/InsiderQuick tip: If you want to unhide an app, find it in the App Library and hold your finger on it, then select Add to Home Screen.
To hide an entire page of apps1. Press and hold your finger on the dots at the bottom of your home screen — the ones that show what page you're on.
2. Keep holding it until your iPhone zooms out to show every page at once. If all the apps start shaking but it doesn't zoom out, just lift your finger and tap the dots again.
3. Find the page of apps that you want to hide and tap the checkmark underneath it so the check disappears.
When unchecked, you won’t see that page when swiping anymore. Abigail Abesamis Demarest/Insider4. Tap Done in the top-right corner.
Quick tip: Just like hiding a single app, all of the apps on the hidden page will still show up in the App Library.
Open this menu again and check the circle under the page to make it reappear.
Along with the App Library, you can find hidden apps by dragging your finger down on the home screen, and then searching for them. While this is useful for finding hidden apps, it might be another privacy concern.
Luckily, you can remove apps from showing up in the search results too.
1. Open the Settings app and scroll down to tap Siri & Search.
2. In the menu that opens, scroll down and select the app that you want to hide from search.
3. Tap the Show App in Search toggle so it turns gray.
When turned off, the app will no longer show up in search results. Abigail Abesamis Demarest/Insider1.
Swipe down on your home screen to open your iPhone's Search feature. Type in the name of the app, then tap on the app's icon to open it.
2. Press and hold the side button to activate Siri. Ask Siri to open the app.
3. Swipe left on your home screen until you reach the App Library. Tap on the app icon if you see it, or use the Search bar.
Quick tip: Apps are organized by category in the App Library, to make them easier to find.
William Antonelli
Tech Reporter for Insider Reviews
William Antonelli (he/she/they) is a writer, editor, and organizer based in New York City.
As a founding member of the Reference team, he helped grow Tech Reference (now part of Insider Reviews) from humble beginnings into a juggernaut that attracts over 20 million visits a month. Outside of Insider, his writing has appeared in publications like Polygon, The Outline, Kotaku, and more. He's also a go-to source for tech analysis on channels like Newsy, Cheddar, and NewsNation. You can find him on Twitter @DubsRewatcher, or reach him by email at [email protected].
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Abigail Abesamis Demarest
Abigail Abesamis Demarest is a contributing writer for Insider based in New York. She loves a good glazed donut and nerdy deep dives into the science of food and how it's made.
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Hide an app if you want to remove it from your App Store purchases list. If you want to redownload the app, display it first.
If an app is hidden in the shopping list, it no longer appears in the App Store purchases. However, the app will still show up in your purchase history in Settings. And if you're using Family Sharing, family members won't be able to redownload an app from your Shared Purchases list. nine0003
Hiding the app won't remove it from your device, anyone in your family's device, or other devices that you're signed in with your Apple ID. If you want to remove an app from the Home screen, personalize the Home screen on iPhone.
nine0014 If you uninstall an app from your iPhone or iPad, the app will not automatically appear on the Home screen when you turn it on. Instead, you'll need to re-download the app from the App Store. You don't have to buy this app again. nine0003
If you're not already signed in, click Sign In at the bottom of the sidebar and enter your Apple ID and password. 
Information about non-Apple products or independent Web sites not controlled or tested by Apple is not endorsed or endorsed by Apple. Apple is not responsible for the selection, functionality, or use of third party websites or products. Apple is also not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of information posted on third party websites. Contact the supplier for more information. nine0003
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The very ideology of iOS provides for quick access to the installed application. For this, it is placed on one of the desktops. But users do not always need this - sometimes the label is too intrusive or it is generally undesirable to show it to strangers.
| Apple in Telegram and YouTube. Subscribe! nine0092 |
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But on Android, you can hide the application in quite regular ways, on iOS, programs will still be displayed where they should be - on the desktop. To make the icon disappear from there, you need to delete the application itself. Is the situation really that hopeless? nine0003
It's actually possible to hide preinstalled apps like Safari. Third-party programs can be slightly masked so that they are not so easy to detect.
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If you are dealing with official pre-installed applications, you can hide them from the screen without deleting them. Unexpectedly, function 9 will help with this0091 Screen Time .
Open the app Settings and go to Screen Time .
In menu "Content and privacy" , activate the switch.
This will give you access to additional settings. We are interested in "Allowed applications" .
Here you can deactivate all applications you do not need. In this case, they will disappear from the desktop and will not appear there. nine0003
♥ RELATED: iPhone Calculator: Hidden Features of the Standard iOS App.
The easiest way to hide a third party application is to put it in a folder.
Although this method does not seem to be reliable, it is the one most often used by users. To create a folder, simply drag and drop one application onto another. You can group the maximum number of programs and hide the desired one among them.
The name for this collection is better to give some neutral - "work", "utilities", "other" or something similar. nine0003
In our example below, we have hidden the WhatsApp messenger in a folder, removed it from iOS search, and disabled its notifications.
Notifications from this application will also need to be turned off so that it does not inadvertently signal its existence. What's the point of hiding the messenger in a folder if the program will signal new messages? You will have to go to the settings and pay attention to section "Notifications" .
You will also need to hide the app from search and Siri suggestions. To do this, in the settings in section Siri and Search Scroll down until you see your app.
Click on it and disable all available options: "Analyze this app" , "From app" , "App suggestion", "App in search" and "Use with Ask Siri" .
If you don't see your application in the settings "Siri and Search" , it means that it has already been disabled earlier in "Screen Time" .
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Apple remembers everything you download from the app store. And even after removing the program from the device, the mention of this application will remain in the download history. So anyone with access to your device can find out what apps you've downloaded and installed in the past. But deleting this information is very easy. nine0003
Open the App Store app, click on your profile icon in the top right corner and go to Shopping .
Entries you want to delete simply swipe left and confirm by pressing the Hide key (detailed).
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