How to Hide Icons on a Smartphone
RURI RANBE
TECH
Removing icons from your Home or Start screen on your Android, Windows Phone or BlackBerry device is easy, as these operating systems provide a straightforward way to hide, or unpin, apps you don't frequently use. However, the same can't be said for iOS: when you remove an icon from your Home screen, the iPhone deletes the program and all related data along with it. To hide certain apps on the iPhone, you must create a new folder to hold your unwanted icons.
- Android
- Press the Home button
- Press and hold the appropriate app
- Release your finger
- iOS
- Press the Home button-2
- Press
- An app onto another app
- Windows Phone
- Press the Start button
- Hold the appropriate app
- Repeat the above steps for each tile
- BlackBerry
- Press the End Power
- Select the app
- Highlight and then check Hide to remove the icon
1 Android
2 Press the Home button
Press the Home button, and then slide to the screen containing the icon or icons you want to hide.
3 Press and hold the appropriate app
Press and hold the appropriate app, and then drag the icon onto the Remove icon on the top of the screen.
4 Release your finger
Release your finger when the Remove icon turns red. Repeat the steps to remove additional icons from your Home screen.
5 iOS
6 Press the Home button-2
Press the Home button, and then slide to the screen containing the icon or icons you want to hide.
7 Press
Press and hold the appropriate app until it begins to wiggle. Drag the app and any other icons you want to hide to the right to move them to a blank screen.
8 An app onto another app
Drag-and-drop an app onto another app to create a new folder. Enter a name for the container, and then move the remaining icons to the folder you just created.
9 Windows Phone
10 Press the Start button
Press the Start button, marked with the Windows icon, to return to the Start screen, and then scroll down to the tile you want to hide.
11 Hold the appropriate app
Press and hold the appropriate app, and then touch the "Unpin" button, or pushpin icon, in the top right.
12 Repeat the above steps for each tile
Repeat the above steps for each tile you want to hide from the Start screen.
13 BlackBerry
14 Press the End Power
Press the End/Power button to return to the Home screen, and then press the Menu key, marked with the BlackBerry logo.
15 Select the app
Scroll to and select the app you want to hide, and then press the Menu key to confirm.
16 Highlight and then check Hide to remove the icon
Highlight and then check "Hide" to remove the icon from the main screen. Repeat the steps for each icon you want to remove.
- Information in this article applies to Android KitKat 4.4, iOS 7, Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry OS 7. It may vary slightly or significantly with other versions or products.
- On some models of Android, when you press and hold an icon, a trash can icon appears on the bottom of the screen instead of the Remove icon.
- As with the iPhone, to hide apps in BlackBerry 10, you must move them to their own folder. Touch and hold the appropriate app until the icons on the Home screen start to blink, and then drag the app onto another app you want to hide. Enter a name for the folder, and then touch "Create."
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