How to hide apps on iPhone

You can hide an app on iPhone without installing anything: Apple’s lock-and-hide option moves an app off your Home Screen and out of search into a Hidden folder that opens with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. It works on apps you downloaded from the App Store, not on apps that came installed on the iPhone. This guide covers the steps, the places a hidden app still shows its name, and when locking an app or removing it from the Home Screen suits you better. It’s checked against Apple’s iOS 27 guides.

How do you hide an app on iPhone?

Hiding and locking are one menu. A hidden app is always locked as well, so it needs Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode every time it opens.

The app disappears from your Home Screen and moves to the Hidden folder at the bottom of App Library. Apple says hiding also takes it out of search results.

Tap Require Face ID first to see whether hiding is on offer. If the next menu has no Hide option, the app is one Apple doesn’t let you hide. Apps that came installed on the iPhone can’t be hidden, and neither can an app you’ve set as your default web browser or, in the EU, your default app marketplace.

How do you open a hidden app?

1. Swipe left past all your Home Screen pages to reach App Library.
2. Tap the Hidden folder at the bottom and authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
3. Tap the app, then authenticate again.

The app locks again after you quit it, so the next time you open it you’ll be asked again. For a full list of what you’ve hidden, open Settings, tap Apps, then tap Hidden Apps.

Where does a hidden app still show?

Hiding takes an app off your Home Screen, out of App Library’s normal folders and out of search. It doesn’t erase every trace, and Apple says so plainly. The name of a hidden app can still appear in:

• Settings, Apps, Hidden Apps. This list needs Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode to open.
• Settings, Screen Time. App usage is listed by name.
• Settings, Battery, Battery Health & Charging.
• Your App Store purchase history.

You can take the app off your App Store purchase list, though not out of your complete purchase history. In the App Store, tap your photo or initials, tap Apps & Purchase History, then Your Apps, swipe left on the app and tap Hide. Apple says the app still appears in your complete purchase history in Settings, and hiding a purchase doesn’t remove the app from your phone.

Hiding is also per device. The hidden status doesn’t sync with iCloud, so an app you hide on your iPhone stays visible on your iPad unless you hide it there too.

Is locking an app enough?

Often it is, and it’s the better choice when you don’t mind people seeing the app is there. A locked app stays on your Home Screen but won’t open without Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. Apple says information inside a locked app also stays out of notification previews, search, Siri suggestions, your call history and CarPlay.

To lock an app without hiding it, touch and hold it, tap Require Face ID (or Touch ID or Passcode), then tap Require Face ID again and authenticate to confirm. To undo it, touch and hold the app, tap Don’t Require Face ID (or Touch ID or Passcode) and authenticate.

Some apps that came installed can be locked even though they can’t be hidden. Others can’t be locked at all, including Calculator, Camera, Clock, Contacts, Find My, Maps, Shortcuts and Settings.

What about removing an app from the Home Screen?

If all you want is a tidier Home Screen, you don’t need to hide anything. Touch and hold the app, tap Remove App, then tap Remove from Home Screen. Apple says the app moves to App Library and can still be used from there; it isn’t deleted.

This hides nothing from someone who opens App Library, and it adds no Face ID or passcode check of its own. It suits apps you’d rather not see every day, not apps you’d rather nobody opened.

Be careful not to tap Delete App by mistake. Deleting removes the app and its data from your iPhone, although Apple notes that anything the app stored in iCloud isn’t deleted with it.

Which way should you choose?

• Remove from Home Screen when you want a cleaner Home Screen and privacy doesn’t come into it.
• Lock when people may see your phone but shouldn’t see inside one app, or notification previews from it.
• Hide when you’d rather the app wasn’t on show at all, and you accept that Settings and Screen Time may still show its name.

Locking and hiding both lean on the same thing: your iPhone passcode, wherever it’s accepted. Photos has a separate lock for its Hidden album, which also opens with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode, as our guide to hiding photos on iPhone explains.

If the app you want to hide is where your private photos live, read how to lock photos on iPhone next, for the ways to lock the photos themselves and what each one misses.