You can hide apps on your iPhone without actually deleting them from your device. While having your Home Screen neatly arranged with custom icons and folders is visually pleasing, there may be times when you'd prefer to conceal certain apps temporarily.

Hiding entire pages of your Home Screen allows you to maintain privacy, especially when sharing your phone with others or in situations where you want to avoid distractions. This feature is particularly useful for concealing sensitive apps like banking or dating services when around friends or family.

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Apple introduced this functionality with iOS 14 through the App Library, which stores all installed apps even if they're not visible on the Home Screen. With iOS 15, it became even more powerful thanks to Focus profiles, which let you automatically display only selected Home Screen pages depending on your current context.

Note: The steps below are shown using iOS, but the process is identical on iPadOS.

Manually Hide or Show Home Screen Pages

To begin, touch and hold the "Search" button (on iOS 16 and newer) or tap the page indicators (???) above the dock or any empty area on your wallpaper. Then select the page dots to open the Home Screen editing interface. You'll see a list of your pages from left to right, with checkmarks indicating which ones are currently visible.

Tap the checkmark under a page to uncheck it and hide that page. While here, you can also rearrange or remove existing pages.

To change the order of your pages (iOS 15 and later), press and hold a page thumbnail, then drag it to a new position. If you wish to delete a page entirely, tap the minus (–) icon and confirm by selecting "Remove" in the pop-up dialog. This action won't delete the apps themselves—they’ll still be available in the App Library. Tap "Cancel" to go back without making changes.

Once you’re finished, tap "Done." On devices with Touch ID, you might not see a Done button—pressing the Home button twice will exit the editor instead.

If this is your first time modifying your Home Screen layout and you have the setting enabled for adding new apps to the Home Screen, you'll see a prompt titled "Page Editing and Newly Downloaded Apps." Since you're hiding pages, iOS assumes you also want to prevent new apps from appearing on your Home Screen. Select "OK." To revert this, navigate to Settings ? Home Screen & App Library and enable "Add to Home Screen" under Newly Downloaded Apps.

The visible page indicators will now reflect only the active pages. To access hidden apps, either return to the page editor to unhide the relevant page or search for the app in the App Library, Spotlight, or via Siri.

Link Home Screen Pages to Focus Profiles

For automatic management of hidden and visible pages, use Apple’s Focus mode. If you're unfamiliar with Focus, refer to our beginner's guide to iOS 17 Focus modes.

By assigning specific Home Screen pages to a Focus profile, you ensure that only those pages appear when the Focus is active. In the Focus settings, navigate to Customize Screens and tap "Choose" under the Home Screen preview or directly on the preview itself. This displays a list of all your current Home Screen pages.

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Select the pages you want to associate with the Focus by tapping either the page or the circle beneath it. Once done, tap "Done."

When you activate the Focus manually or via a scheduled automation (set up within the Focus profile or using Shortcuts), only the selected pages will appear until the Focus is turned off.

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Cover image and screenshots by Justin Meyers/Gadget Hacks

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