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The apps on your phone are a glimpse into your private life that you may not want your colleagues, friends, or family to see — let alone strangers peeking at your screen whenever you take out your phone in public. Learn how to boost your privacy by hiding apps on your iPhone, and level up your protection with dedicated mobile security for iOS.
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Hiding apps on an iPhone or iPad is simple and can be done in a few different ways. If you want to hide a dating app, job-search portal, or health app — even if you just want a clean, uncluttered home screen — you need to know where to put your apps so that they’re hidden from view but still accessible when you need them.
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If you have an Android phone, check out our guide to hiding apps on an Android.
First we’ll cover hiding individual iPhone apps. Then, we’ll look at concealing an entire screen of apps as well as ways to keep your apps from appearing in your phone’s search results.
To hide individual iOS apps, press and hold the app icon that you want to hide, tap Remove App from the menu that appears, and select Remove from Home Screen.
The app icon will now disappear. Note that apps removed from the home screen are not completely hidden — they’ll still be visible in your iPhone’s App Library and in an app search. So you can still find those hidden apps by going directly to your App Library.
If you want to clean up your iPhone so that only apps you regularly use appear, you can hide an entire page of apps in one fell swoop. Here’s how:
Press and hold the Search button at the bottom of your home screen until your app icons start shaking.
Tap on the series of dots at the bottom of the screen that has now replaced the Search button to zoom out and display all your home screen pages simultaneously.
Tap the checkmark beneath the page of apps you want to hide so that the tick disappears. Then tap Done in the top-right corner.
Now the page (or pages) of apps you deselected will no longer be displayed on your iPhone or iPad home screen. If you change your mind, simply repeat the steps above, this time tapping the circle underneath the app page to redisplay it on your home screen.
If you want to hide an app from more than just a cursory flick through your home screen, you should also prevent it from showing up in iOS device searches.
Here’s how to hide apps from searches on an iPad or iPhone:
Open your iOS Settings, tap on Siri & Search, and select the app that you want to hide.
Toggle off Show App in Search so it turns gray.
Although the app will no longer appear in searches, it’s still installed on your device, so this process won’t help free up space or speed up your iPhone. To help with that, you’ll need to delete the app completely.
And if you think an app is behaving maliciously, be sure to follow the steps for removing spyware or other malware from your iPhone. Then, protect your device with a free iOS security app. Or get a VPN for iOS to encrypt your internet traffic and help hide your iPhone’s location.
All apps installed on your device can be found within your App Library — even those you’ve hidden from your home screen or from the search function. Here’s how to access or unhide hidden apps via the App Library:
On your home screen, scroll right until you come to the final page displaying your App Library.
Find the hidden app you want either by scrolling down to it or using the App Library search bar. If you just want to access the hidden app, simply tap it to open the app.
To unhide the app and place it back on your home screen, tap and hold the app icon, drag it to the left, and release your finger to drop the app icon in your desired location.
If you previously hid the app using your device’s Siri & Search feature, it still won’t show up in searches. To re-enable search visibility, follow the steps outlined here and toggle on Show App in Search (step two).
Now that you’ve hidden your sensitive apps from prying eyes, it’s time to protect your personal information from hackers, trackers, and scammers. Avast One features a built-in Web Shield and VPN. And its secure photo vault will help protect the photos on your iPhone. Install Avast One today — completely free — to get powerful online security for your iPhone.