You know I have been doing this since the iPhone X era and I’m telling you, Apple’s method of hiding apps has always been strange. They give you just enough control to feel you have privacy but not quite enough to actually hide things like you need to from a nosy buddy taking your phone at a party.
iOS 26 changed a few things. Not revolutionary but enough that your old muscle memory from iOS 18 might fool you. So here’s everything you need to know about how to hide apps on iPhone iOS 26, and yes, I’m including the annoying parts Apple doesn’t mention in their sanitized support docs.
Why You’d Want to Hide Apps
Maybe you’ve got dating apps you don’t want visible when you’re showing photos to your mom. Maybe it’s banking apps you want extra hidden. Maybe—and I’m not judging—you just want Reddit off your home screen so you stop doom scrolling at 2 AM.
The fact of the matter is that even when you follow how to hide apps on iPhone iOS 26 doesn’t make them disappear from everywhere. They are still showing in Settings under Cellular Data and appear under Screen Time data. Also still continue to consume your battery in the background. It seems more realistic to say that something is not visible on your home screen instead of actually truly hidden according to Apple’s definition.
Method 1: Remove Apps from Home Screen (The Basic One)
To be honest this is the simplest way to declutter and it is what most people mean when they search how to hide apps on iPhone iOS 26. But the thing is you’re not actually hiding anything you’re just making the app reside only in the App Library.
Here’s what you need to do: hit and hold on any app icon on your home screen until the options menu pops up. You’ll see “Edit Home Screen” and “Remove app from home screen iOS 26” right there in the list. Click that second option.
The app disappears from your home screen immediately. But don’t worry, It’s still installed, still gets updates, still runs in the background if it wants to. It just lives in the App Library now, which is that swipey thing all the way to the right of your last home screen page.
One weird thing: if the app is inside a folder you’ve got to open that folder first & then hold on the app. Apple seemed to think this would be too much work to make it work through folder previews. Not surprising, though.
To get the app back on your home screen just head to the App Library, find it (or use the search bar at the top if you can’t remember and long press the icon. Then hit “Add to Home Screen”. That’s it, you’re done.
Method 2: Hide and Lock Apps with Face ID (The “Actually Private” Option)
Now it gets a bit more serious, especially if you’re looking for the iPhone iOS 26 app hiding version that offers true privacy. At last, Apple has implemented appropriate app lockout that eliminates the need for Screen Time’s awkward interface. You can now hide and lock apps iOS 26 Face ID directly, and they get shoved into a special Hidden folder in the App Library that requires authentication to even open.
I tested this function the day iOS 26 was released and quickly shut my banking app. After that, my phone restarted because I was interfering with beta profiles (don’t ask), and it twice requested Face ID when I attempted to enter the Hidden folder. Like, back-to-back authentication. Turns out there’s a bug where the system forgets it just verified you if the device rebooted within the last 10 minutes. Still not fixed as of late October 2025.
Now here are the steps to follow – if you want to know how to do it:
Just long-press the app you want to hide – not just remove from the home screen, but properly hide it. then choose ‘Require Face ID’ from the options.
A little warning message pops up telling you that the app is going to be hidden and requires Face ID to get back into it. Just click on ‘Hide & Require Face ID’ to confirm this will remove the app from your home screen and automatically gets moved to a special “Hidden” folder inside the App Library.
Here’s what actually happens after you do this:
The app wont show up in Spotlight searches anymore – that’s the main difference from just removing it from your home screen. It’s also not going to show up in Siri suggestions & you’ll also get generic notifications from the app – no preview content on the lock screen, just the usual ” you have a notification” style thing.
But the app still shows up in Settings > Cellular, Settings > Battery and Screen Time reports. So if someone is snooping, they’ll still be able to see data usage & battery drain from an app that you are supposed to have hidden. Not exactly some kind of super-safe fortress.
To get back into your hidden apps, just swipe over to the App Library and scroll right down to the very bottom. You’ll see a new folder called “Hidden” – tap it, then Face ID will ask for your password one more time & your secret stash will be right there. Just one thing to note, iOS 26 makes you authenticate every single time you try to access a hidden app, which is both a good thing & a bit of a pain when you need something quick.
Method 3: Use Screen Time to Actually Lock Apps Down
If you want to get serious – like ‘i genuinely don’t trust myself on tiktok’ serious – then you can use the app limits feature on Screen Time. This isn’t exactly hiding, it’s more like a last resort way to completely block access to your phone.
Open Settings, go to Screen Time, then tap App Limits and choose “Add Limit.” Pick the apps you want to control, set the limit to one minute, and make sure “Block at End of Limit” is turned on.
The app turns greys out on your home screen when you hit the 1-minute limit and will not open the app unless you provide your Screen Time password. This is the way your Screen Time hides apps on iPhone not hidden visually, but functionally locked unless you punch in that code.
The advantage here is that you can schedule it. Need instagram locked away during the work day but available in the evenings? Easy. . Screen Time can do that. The disadvantage is that it’s obvious—the app icon is still visible, just grayed out with a little hourglass icon.
How to Unhide Apps (Because You Will Forget Where Everything Went)
Let’s say you went on a hiding spree and now you can’t find half your apps. Happens to everyone.
For apps you just removed from the home screen: swipe to the App Library, find the app (seriously, use the search bar), long-press, select “Add to Home Screen.” That’s it.
For apps you actually hide with Face ID: go to the App Library, scroll down to the Hidden folder, authenticate, long-press the app inside the Hidden folder, and select “Don’t Require Face ID.” The app will ask if you want to add it back to your home screen or just leave it in the App Library. Unhide apps from App Library iOS 26 is just a two-tap process once you authenticate.
For Screen Time locked apps: Settings → Screen Time → App Limits → tap the limit you set → Delete Limit. Enter your Screen Time passcode if you set one (you probably forgot it; everyone does).
The Annoying Places Hidden Apps Still Show Up
Let me save you some embarrassment. Even after you hide an app using how to hide apps on iPhone iOS 26 methods, it’ll still pop up in:
Settings → Cellular: Shows data usage by app. All your apps are listed there, hidden or not. If someone scrolls through looking for ways to save data, they’ll see everything.
Settings → Battery: Same deal. Battery usage by app doesn’t care about your privacy settings.
Settings → Search: If you search for an app name in Settings, it’ll find system settings for that app even if the app itself is hidden. Weird oversight.
Notification Center: If you didn’t turn off notifications completely, they’ll still roll in. They’ll be generic if you used the Face ID hiding method, but they’ll still say something came from somewhere.
Siri: If you tell Siri to “open [hidden app name],” she’ll just do it. No Face ID check. This is a bug that Apple knows about but hasn’t prioritized fixing because apparently Siri convenience trumps privacy.
Can You Prevent Hidden Apps from Showing in Search Completely?
Sort of. When you hide an app with the Face ID method, it’s automatically removed from Spotlight search. That’s the default behavior now.
But if you want to prevent hidden apps from showing in search iOS 26 even more thoroughly, you need to manually disable Siri & Search indexing for each app before hiding it. Go to Settings → Siri & Search, scroll to the app, and turn off “Show App in Search,” “Show Content in Search,” and “Suggest App.”
This is overkill for most people, but if you’re the paranoid type (or have legitimate reasons to be), it’s worth doing. Just remember that you’ll have to manually enable these settings again when you unhide the app, or it won’t show up in Spotlight even after you unhide it. I’ve made that mistake three times.
iOS 26 Hiding Feature Limitations and Quirks
iOS 26 is mostly stable, but the app hiding features have some weird edges:
Liquid Glass animation lag: On iPhone 14 and 14 Plus models specifically, the long-press menu sometimes stutters when you’re trying to access the “Require Face ID” option. It’s a frame-rate thing related to the Liquid Glass UI effects Apple added. Just keep holding; it’ll appear.
Double authentication after restart: Already mentioned this, but it’s annoying enough to repeat. If your phone reboots, the first time you access the Hidden folder might require Face ID twice in a row. Not every time, but often enough to notice.
iCloud sync confusion: If you hide an app on one device, it should sync to your other devices via iCloud. Should. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes it syncs the “hidden” status but not the Face ID lock requirement. No clear pattern yet.
App updates break visibility sometimes: Twice now I’ve had an app auto-update, and after the update, it reappeared on my home screen even though I had it hidden. Might be a developer issue with how they package updates, might be an iOS bug. Either way, check your home screen after major app updates.
Final Verdict: Does iOS 26 Provide True Privacy?
Depends on your threat model, to use a fancy security term.
If you just want a cleaner home screen and don’t want certain apps immediately visible when you hand your phone to someone, yes, these methods work great. The basic “remove from home screen” option is perfect for that.
If you’re trying to hide apps from someone who knows their way around an iPhone, the Face ID hiding method is decent but not foolproof. A determined snoop who knows about Settings → Cellular can still figure out what apps you have installed.
If you’re trying to hide something from law enforcement or a forensic investigation, lol, none of this will help you even slightly. Just so we’re clear.
It is genuinely helpful for those who want a bit more privacy and organization, knowing how to hide apps on iPhone iOS 26. It’s better than what we had in iOS 18, worse than what Android has offered for
