Hide Apps and Pages from the Home Screen on iPhone

iOS 14 brings major changes to the iPhone’s Home screen. You can now place widgets among other app icons, create Smart Stacks of auto-rotating widgets, use the App Library to check installed apps at a glance, etc. But did you know that you can also hide apps or even entire pages from the Home screen?

Previously, if you wanted to keep an app away from prying eyes, you had to zip it into a folder or worse, delete it. But with iOS 14, you can instantly uninstall apps from the Home screen without taking any action.

Better still, you can also quickly hide unwanted Home screen pages, reducing Home screen clutter. Without further ado, let’s take a look at how you can do all this below.

Note: We used screenshots from an iPhone running iOS 14 Public Beta 4. You may see minor differences in subsequent public beta releases or the stable iOS 14 release.

Hide Apps in App Library

If your iPhone is running iOS 14 or later, you can easily remove any app from the Home screen by hiding it in the App Library.

Start the app by long pressing; Tap Uninstall App in the contextual menu that appears.

You should then see a confirmation prompt; Tap Move to App Library (or Remove from Home Screen) to remove the app from the Home screen.

Note: The Remove from Home Screen option is only shown for certain apps that you cannot delete from your iPhone: Camera, Settings, Safari, etc.

Then there are two ways to access the app. The first method involves using the Application Library; Go to the last Home screen page and then swipe left to open it.

Then you can tap the app in the corresponding app category to open it; If you can’t see it at a glance, simply expand the category to reveal it.

Alternatively, you can use the iPhone’s Search function to find the app; To bring up Search, swipe down from any Home screen page, type the name of the app, then tap Go.

iOS 14 also lets you hide new apps you install by simply adding them directly to the App Library. To do this, go to Settings > Home Screen and tap App Library Only.

Whenever you want to show an app, go to the App Library and long press the app icon. Then tap Add to Home screen. You can also drag the app out of the App Library and onto the Home screen to show it.

Hide Home Pages

Do you have too many apps installed on your iPhone? If so, you can quickly hide Home screen pages to reduce clutter. Once again, you must have iOS 14 or higher installed on your iPhone to do this.

Long press any blank area on the Home screen to start shaking. Next, tap the dot strip just above the iPhone’s dock, which shows the number of Home screen pages.

On the Edit Displayed Pages screen, uncheck the Home screen pages you want to hide. However, you must keep at least one Home screen page visible. Tap Done to exit the Edit Pages screen.

You can still access apps from any hidden Home screen page via the App Library or iPhone’s Search function.

When you want to show any page, open the Edit Pages screen again, select the page or pages and tap Done.

Tip: Hide Apps with Screen Time

You can also use Screen Time to hide a limited number of native apps on any iPhone running iOS 12, iOS 13, iOS 14 or later.

Start by going to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Allowed Apps. Then turn off the toggles next to the app you want to hide. Then exit to the Home screen.

Note: If you are using Screen Time for the first time, you will have to go through several splash screens to set up the functionality.

You won’t be able to access the apps you hide with Screen Time (via App Library or Search) unless you allow them again on your iPhone. To do this, go back to the Allowed Apps panel in Screen Time again.

If you share your iPhone with others, you may want to secure Screen Time with a passcode to prevent them from changing your restrictions without permission.

Private and Clutter-Free

iOS 14’s ability to hide apps and pages finally helps you solve privacy concerns and Home screen clutter on iPhone. While you’re at it, be sure to check out other exciting iOS 14 additions and improvements like the new Translate app, revamped Messages app or Picture-in-Picture mode.

Next: Did you know that you can add shortcuts to websites on your iPhone’s Home screen? Click the link below to learn how to do this.