Apple prioritizes the protection of your digital and physical security. However, without an iPhone privacy screen, others may inadvertently or intentionally catch a glimpse of an app on your iPhone that you wish to keep private.
Privacy screens have limitations. It could be a dating, banking, political app, or any app that you prefer to keep to yourself. Fortunately, there are ways to conceal these apps from your home screen while retaining access to them without deleting them. It’s a simple yet effective process. Here’s how.
Hiding Apps on the iPhone Using the App Library
In iOS 14, Apple introduced the App Library, a new way to organize your apps separate from the traditional grid and folder view. It’s situated on the last page of your Home Screen and automatically categorizes all your apps, even if you’ve already sorted them into folders. Here’s how to remove an app from the Home Screen but keep it accessible via the App Library:
- Locate the app you want to hide from your Home Screen.
- Long-press the app’s icon until a pop-up menu appears.
- Select Remove App from the menu.
- On the next menu, select Remove from Home Screen. As the menu states, “Removing from Home Screen will keep the app in your App Library.
As mentioned earlier, your App Library is located on the last page of your Home Screen — just keep swiping right to left until you reach it.
In this scenario, the concealed Coinbase app is found in the “Finance” folder. To bring the app back to the Home Screen, open the “Finance” folder, long-press the Coinbase app, and choose Add To Home Screen from the pop-up menu. This will add it to the first available spot on the first home screen page. You can also tap and hold the app and drag it out of the App Library to position it anywhere, just like reorganizing apps on your Home Screen.
Hiding apps on your iPhone can enhance privacy and declutter your interface. Remember, hiding an app doesn’t imply deceit or secrecy. Everyone deserves their privacy. The feature is there for a reason. If there are apps you wish to keep hidden from prying eyes, go ahead and conceal them.
