How To Hide Apps on Your iPhone: A Step-By-Step Guide

Hiding apps on your iPhone can declutter your home screen and boost privacy and security. This can keep these apps away from prying eyes (dating or banking apps, for example) or hide sensitive content from your children. 

It could also reduce your screen time by removing the temptation to use them. If you want to enhance your privacy further, use data removal services to delete your sensitive info from the internet.

Keep reading to learn how to hide apps on your iPhone and get some expert privacy and security tips.

How to hide apps on an iPhone

Hiding iPhone apps has several important benefits — from organizing your home screen to securing your iPhone. The security part is especially relevant if other people (including your children) can access your device. 

In the sections below, we’ll show you how to hide single or multiple apps and how to find them afterward.

How to hide individual apps on your iPhone

Hiding apps from your iPhone’s home screen won’t make them completely invisible; they remain accessible in the App Library and can appear in search results. 

With that caveat out of the way, here’s how to hide apps from your home screen:

1. Tap and hold the app’s icon and tap Remove App
2. Select Remove from the Home Screen

How to hide an entire app page

If you want to hide multiple apps, concealing an entire home screen page is the best choice. You can keep frequently used apps visible and hide all the rest. Here’s how to do it:

1. Tap and hold the Search button at the bottom of your home screen. Your app icons will begin to shake.

   

2. Click the dots that replace the Search button. This will zoom out and show all your home screen pages at once.
3. Click on the checkmark under the page you want to hide. The check mark will disappear.
4. Tap Done in the top-right corner to hide the entire app page.

The chosen page will no longer appear on your iPhone’s home screen. To bring it back, repeat the same steps and click the circle under the page again.

How to stop iPhone apps from showing in searches

At this point, people can still use the search feature to find hidden apps in the App Library. Apart from boosting your privacy, removing irrelevant or infrequently used apps from search results will streamline your user experience. 

Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to your Settings and tap Siri & Search. Tap the app you want to hide.

   

2. Toggle off Show App in Search. This will turn it from green to gray.

This process won’t remove the app from your phone. So, if you’re looking to free up space, it won’t help. If we’re dealing with a malicious app, hiding it won’t remove malware from your iPhone; you’ll need to delete the app completely for that.

How to find hidden apps on an iPhone

Finding all the apps is as easy as hiding them. Simply go to your App Library and select the ones you need.

1. Find the App Library on your home screen
   
   

   

2. Locate the hidden app you want to restore.
3. To unhide the app and put it on the home screen, click and hold that app’s icon. Drag it to the left and drop it wherever you want.

If you’ve hidden the app through the Siri & Search function, it still won’t appear in searches. You’ll need to re-enable this feature in the Show App in the Search section.

How to hide files on your iPhone

Boosting your privacy can also include hiding specific files (mainly images and videos). Perhaps they contain confidential projects you don’t want to mix with family photos. Whatever the reason, here’s how to hide files on your iPhone:

1. Open your Photos app
2. Choose the photo or video you want to hide
3. Tap the More button (three horizontal dots) in the top-right corner, then Hide

Additional tips for privacy and security

Hiding apps isn’t the only way to enhance your privacy and security. We also recommend adopting some good cybersecurity habits. The most important ones are:

• Using strong passwords: Strong passwords should include upper/lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. You can always use a good password manager for iPhone to keep all your passwords in one place. These programs usually come with random password generation, so you’ll get unbreakable login credentials with zero effort.
• Updating your apps and iOS regularly: Keeping your apps and system up to date ensures the presence of all relevant security patches and bug fixes.
• Restricting unnecessary app permissions: Apps usually request more data than necessary, including your location, browsing data, camera, messages, photos/videos, and more. We recommend allowing them the bare minimum they need to function and denying everything else.
• Use a good VPN and a reliable antivirus program: A VPN will mask your real IP address and hide your online actions behind unbreakable encryption. Apart from granting online anonymity, VPNs allow you to access geo-restricted content (like Netflix U.S.). Using the best antivirus programs for your iPhone will stop malware, phishing attacks, and other online threats.
• Install an online data removal tool: These programs monitor and delete your info from known data brokers and aggregators. Removing this info will help you avoid annoying spam, targeted scams, and online stalkers.

What are the best online data removal services for the iPhone?

Every app, service, or website you use will record your data. These logs can include your personally identifiable information (PII), location, legal and financial records, browsing history, religious beliefs, political affiliations, and more.

Data brokers collect publicly available (but also privately sourced) data and sell it to third parties. This data is mainly used for marketing but can also end up in the hands of criminals. If it does, you can fall victim to anything from phishing scams to identity theft.

That’s why we recommend using a reliable service that will contact data brokers for you and remove your info from their databases. The best options include:

• DeleteMe will remove your info from 750+ data brokers. They send detailed quarterly reports and provide a beginner-friendly control dashboard. The service can also mask your email, phone numbers, and credit card info.

  Get DeleteMe | Read DeleteMe Review

• Incogni limits access to your private info and protects you from data theft. Their report will list all sites contacted on your behalf and include the type of data collected. It’s more affordable than DeleteMe but covers only 200+ data brokers.

  Get Incogni | Read Incogni Review

How to hide apps on an iPhone FAQ

Bottom line

You can hide apps and files on your iPhone in just a few steps. Hiding content can streamline your user experience and enhance your privacy and security. However, it’s important to remember that hiding apps and files won’t free up space; you’ll need to remove them entirely to do that. 

 With so many apps tracking and transmitting your data, we also recommend using data removal services to minimize your digital footprint.