A very common complaint from iOS users is that unused stock apps cannot be hidden or removed from the Home screen, so ‘less useful’ apps like Tips or Stocks have to be hidden in a folder somewhere to get them off the Home screen. As noted by AppAdvice, the internal App Store JSON data source has added a couple of new interesting keys in the last few weeks, which suggests that Apple is in fact adding the ability to hide stock apps soon …
The additions to the internal API include keys for ‘isFirstParty’ and ‘isFirstPartyHideableApp’. In our testing, we could verify the existence of the boolean fields, but could only ever find them with a false value. This makes sense given that the App Store to date only hosts third-party apps offered as optional downloads.
In a future OS release (iOS 10?), this discovery suggests that at least some stock Apple apps will be hideable in some way. Perhaps core features like the Phone or Messages app will remain mandatory, but presumably apps like Compass or Calculator would be user removable. Tim Cook hinted at something like this in an interview with Buzzfeed back in September.
Unfortunately, the iTunes metadata leak cannot reveal any info about how Apple plans to use these keys. Speculating, it could mean that Apple stock apps will start being listed in the App Store. For example, if a user hid the Stocks app but later decided they wanted to restore its position on their Home Screen, they would visit the App Store and re-download the app … mirroring the experience for third-party apps.
It may also mean that stock apps could become less dependent on the system OS, potentially allowing Apple to push updates to stock apps via the App Store rather than waiting for the next major system software updates.
There’s also the possibility that these internal keys are meant for a different purpose, although it’s hard to imagine what else that could be. A name like ‘isFirstPartyAppHideable’ is rather unambiguous, however, at having something to do with hiding first party apps, so it’s hard to consider any realistic alternative uses. There’s also a chance that although Apple is working on the feature internally, it decides never to ship it to customers publicly.
Right now, the only way to hide some stock apps is by connecting an iPhone or iPad to a Mac and use the (enterprise) Apple Configurator tool to setup a custom Home screen profile. Perhaps with iOS 10, Apple will finally make this feature available to general customers right from iOS itself. A lot of users have certainly been voicing their support for such a feature for a while.
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Wuhuuu!!! But still missing: Podcasts, (My) Friends (don’t know how it is called in English), Tips, Watch and Memos
Ther are so few stock apps, compared to Android, that its not that big of a deal IMO.
Android isn’t mentioned in the article at all and we aren’t on an Android site, so why mention it? We are on about APPLE.
Yeah, why mention how iOS compares to its direct competitor? Android fans would NEVER do that…
Oh wait.
These are still 1st party App’s. I have no problem with the 1st party stuff on Android you may not use and want to remove and can’t either. Android also has 3rd party crapware on it!!! There’s never been any 3rd party crapware on a iOS device. Hell there’s never been 3rd party Logo’s on iPhone’s either like everyone else. No AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, etc Logo’s on iPhone’s.
The Stock App I never use, but most others I do once in a while. Once in a while the Compass comes in handy. I use the Calculator all the time. Tip’s, once in a while. I’ve gotten useful tips from it. Voice Memos I don’t normally use. Everything else I use. I just don’t see it as a big issue. A drawer works perfectly fine for me. I have access for the few times I use them.
I would rather Apple worked on more Important things. In fact I expect a HUGE transformation Upgrade this year, being that it’s iOS10!!! As in 10 years of iOS. If it’s just some minor new things, it would be a snooze fest. I’m hoping Apple has been working on something BIG to just blow Android away.
Then again it’s Apple,….
I don’t think it is that big of a deal (either) but it would certainly be nice to get rid of all the apps I don’t use.
There are 12 stock apps I don’t use at all, that’s why this will be a welcome option.
Close but no cigars! Removing the visual clutter caused by unused apps is an interesting first step. But what’s needed is the ability to UNINSTALL those apps, so as to regain the precious storage space they take on the devices. It’s like I’ll put an elephant in your living room, but I’ll paint it the same color as the room, so it won’t be such a nuisance.
Removing causes problems as the OS is so integrated. If they just up the minimum storage to 32gb on future devices, hiding is good enough. Hiding 3rd party apps that don’t really do anything but add extensions/widgets would be nice too.
Maybe you should invest in more storage if available space is an issue for you. The size of iOS is bigger than it used to be but is still pretty small all things considered.
Well, for Apple’s 16 GB (HA!) models, you only end up with 11 usable GBs. Which brings up the issue of why is Apple gimping their devices when the cost to them between 16 and 64 is negligible.
Every single one of those useless apps take up space. For people with 16GB iDevices, this is a big problem. There should be a button to delete the stock apps and maybe the ability to re-download them with a single tap option.
I literally have a folder called ‘useless’ with the Watch app, Podcast app, Stocks app, Contacts app, Compass app, Tips app, etc.
Lol. My folder has almost the same name: “Useless crap”
This might also be an evolution of the method they use to show/hide the Activity app for users with no paired watch.
There are stock apps that are already hide-able (iCloud drive comes to mind that has a Show on Home Screen option). This seems to me just an option for those particular apps. Maybe they’ll expand that option to every stock App, but they could have done that a while ago.
ICloud Drive in my opinion should actually be one of the stock apps on the homescreen and udeletable. I wonder if they will go with just hiding apps or make it possible to delete the apps.
I personally thing all the stock Apapps should be accessible in the App Store so they can be updated without an update to iOS. This would help make the stock apps better with frequent updates.
It’s not deleteable. There’s just an option to hide it. I think they should apply that to all stock apps. Just include an option to hide it from the home screen. This ensure’s a more stable iOS while allowing people to unclutter their home screens. I get deleting it would be nice to save space on the 16G phones, but they should just upgrade the base to 32G instead. Having 16G in this day and age is inexcusable.
why not just treat them like iworks or whatever they are calling them now and just let us download them if we need them. also i’m curious how this would get handled in control center if you were able to disable calculator, my guess is only certain apps will be hide-able.
I would like them deleted from the OS, however, at this point I think the complexity of the system is so big that deleting something would create so many bugs that hiding the apps is the best option.
Hide…wait, if that will save space is good, if that will only makes your home screen less numerous, it’s pointless.
You can already hide the Podcasts app and the News app in iOS 9 by going through Settings>General>Restrictions and then deselecting podcasts and news. Hiding other apps would be nice, too.
How do you access the code anyways?
I would welcome this ability to delete or at least disable/hide the stock apps that I never use like iTunesU, GarageBand, Voice Memos, iBooks, etc. Right now, I just dump them all in my iCrap folder. To be able to free up the wasted memory would be a great step in the right direction.
This was introduced in iOS 9.3 as a management feature. You need to install a configuration profile. See this article for an example. http://www.enterpriseios.com/story/2016/03/29/All_the_new_stuff_for_enterprises_in_iOS_93
This functionality is in the latest version of Configurator on the App Store. You have to Supervise your device first (which requires erasing it, unfortunately), but you can hide all Apple apps except for Settings.