How to Use App Library on iPhone

Quick Tips

• Keep swiping left on your iPhone home screen to find the App Library.
• There are two smart folders named Recently Added and Suggestions. You can’t create a folder in App Library.
• Go to Settings > Home Screen, and you can now choose. Select ‘Add to Home Screen’ for newly installed apps and ‘App Library Only’ if you want the app to go directly to an App Library category.

How to Access App Library

Apple has redesigned the iPhone’s home screen with the launch of iOS 14. There are quite a few new features to look forward to, including the App Library. The other part of the equation is the Widgets.

There is a new space on your home screen called the App Library. You will find it by swiping left on the last screen.

You will find that all the apps that you have installed on your iPhone are already categorized. The system created These categories or folders automatically and are pretty generic—for example, entertainment, social, and productivity.

Categories Inside App Library

• You get two smart folders – Recently Added and Suggestions.
• Recently Added will show all the apps that you installed recently or last on your iPhone.
• Suggestions are a list of apps that Apple deems you would like or likely to use based on your recent activity, time, and location.

What’s frustrating about the App Library is that there is no way to create new or edit existing categories. Some of the apps in the App Library are sorted in the wrong category. And in other cases, there is a folder inside the category requiring an additional tap to access the apps.

There is no way to drag and drop apps even inside a category (auto-generated), let alone in the App Library. Apple has the first and last say in this matter.

Your iPhone will reorder the apps in the folder/category based on app usage, which means it will be keeping an eye on your activities.

Search Inside App Library

• Notice the search bar at the top? It stays visible and hence accessible at all times even when you are scrolling but not when you enter a folder.
• No smart search here, so you can’t search for data inside an app.
• For example, the contact name in the phonebook. All the apps are listed in alphabetical order.

You can do that using the search bar on the home screen. Just pull down from anywhere on the screen to reveal it. I wish both were the same to reduce unnecessary confusion, but this is the beta version. Fingers crossed.

Hide Home Screen Apps and Pages

Apps that you install on your iPhone are placed on the home screen. Whether you use that app or not, it’s there, and all you could do was create a folder to house all useless apps. That’s how its always been but not anymore.

Go to Settings > Home Screen and App Library > Select Add to Home Screen if you want newly installed apps to appear there still and App Library Only if you want the app to go directly to an App Library category.

There is another option for notification badges. Toggle it on if you want the familiar badge on top of the app icon in the App Library. It is on by default, and I recommend letting it be that way.

What about existing apps that have been cluttering your home screen for over a decade now? You can remove them the same way you uninstall apps. Long-tap on the app that you want to remove > Select Edit Home Screen > Tap the minus icon > Select Remove from Home Screen.

Tip: Refer to our post if you have a blurry home screen wallpaper on your iPhone.