How to hide iPhone apps from your Home screen — and where they can still turn up
iOS and iPadOS offer several ways to remove apps from the Home screen or lock them behind Face ID, though hidden apps can still surface elsewhere on the device. Since iOS 18, a dedicated Hidden folder makes the process more thorough than before.
Before iOS 18, the only way to keep an app out of sight on iPhone or iPad was to bury it inside a folder. Apple has since added a proper hiding system, alongside the simpler option of long-pressing an icon and removing it from the Home screen, which merely sends it to the App Library rather than truly hiding it.
Locking apps with Face ID
Long-pressing an app icon now offers a Require Face ID option, which forces authentication with Face ID or a passcode every time the app is opened. Once enabled, notifications no longer show details, and the app disappears from places like Spotlight search and CarPlay. This is particularly useful for financial apps, since it blocks a common scam where someone borrows a phone under the guise of an emergency and quickly transfers money through an app like Venmo.
A further option, Hide and Require Face ID, removes the app from the Home screen and search entirely and stops all notifications from it. Most of Apple's own built-in apps can't be locked this way, and hidden status doesn't sync across a user's other Apple devices.
Hidden apps are collected in a dedicated Hidden folder at the bottom of the App Library, which always appears empty until the user authenticates. To restore an app, users can undo the Face ID requirement from within that folder, after which the app returns to the top of the App Library list.
Not entirely invisible
Even hidden, an app can still appear in Screen Time's activity reports, in the battery usage list, and in App Store purchase history. Purchase history entries can be hidden separately through App Store settings, though doing so doesn't affect the app's visibility on the device itself.
Beyond hiding, iOS also offers time limits, scheduled downtime, notification customization, and options to stop an app from appearing in Siri suggestions or search results.
