Home Screen

In Grid View on your Apple Watch, apps are shown as icons in a kind of honeycomb formation that moves with your finger. Since the introduction of watchOS 4, you can switch from Grid View to List View. This will present your apps as an alphabetized list. I prefer List View as it's easier for me to find apps by title rather than by their icon on the Apple Watch, and the touch target in List View is larger so I don't accidently open the wrong app as much. Also, List View is just easier for me to look at, as the shrinking-enlarging movements of apps in Grid View can give me a headache.

If you like to download and try out new apps, you know how quickly the Home Screen on your iPhone can become a disorganized mess. We've already gone over how to move apps on the iPhone, as well as how to create app folders; but iOS 11 introduced a cool new trick that makes it easier than ever to rearrange an entire Home Screens of apps at once or drag multiple apps in to a folder at once on your iPhone. Let's get started learning how to quickly and easily get all those app icons where you want them on your Home Screen. 

Apple confused quite a few people when it removed the Home button from the iPhone X. Now that we're mostly used to using gestures, swipes, and the Home bar instead of relying on the Home button, it's time to learn a few more easy trick for the iPhone X and later for navigating quickly around our devices. One important one, especially for people with page after page of apps, is learning how to get back to the main Home screen on their iPhone without a Home button. The main Home screen on your iPhone XS is often the screen that contains all the apps you use the most, which for me includes the Calendar app, the App Store app, the Photos app, you know—all the important apps I use all day! So let's get started learning how to save time and navigate home on iPhone X and later with one easy gesture.

Without a Home button on the iPhone X, XR, and XS, how do you return to Home screen? I love the gesture Apple uses on these iPhones to go back to the Home screen, as it feels just as intuitive as clicking the Home button had become for me. Look for the thin long bar, that usually appears white, black, or gray, at the very bottom of your screen. This is a good visual cue. Here’s how to return to Home screen on iPhone X.

In models of the iPhone that have Home buttons, Control Center has always been opened by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. Control Center on iPhone X and later phones cleverly uses the notch at the top of the edge-to-edge display. The notch creates two distinct sides at the top of the screen and Apple uses this small divide to give you access to both Notifications and Control Center. This tip will cover Control Center, but keep an eye out for our tip on accessing Notifications as well. Here’s how to access Control Center on iPhone XS.

Typically when Apple releases a new iPhone, the changes are indisputably upgrades. There’s nothing controversial about adding a better camera and faster processor while keeping the price the same. When Apple decided to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone 7, it was the first time that the changes felt more like a trade-off than an upgrade. When Apple released the iPhone X, I was left with a similar feeling. Apple upgraded the camera, designed an edge-to-edge display, and added Face ID, but removed the Home button and with it the popular Touch ID sensor. To further complicate the equation, Apple raised the price to $1,000. When I watched Apple announce the iPhone X, I was left with more questions than answers. Would I miss the Home button and Touch ID? Would the iPhone’s unusual notch at the top of the display bother me? How reliable would Face ID be? Most importantly, I wondered if the iPhone X was worth the extravagant price tag. After two months of using the iPhone X, I’m ready to weigh in with a definitive hands-on review.

Gestures on the iPhone’s touch screen have always been important, but with no Home button on the iPhone X and later models, gestures become essential. To perform functions like a forced shut down or returning to the Home screen on your iPhone X, XS, XS Max, or XR, you're going to use unique gestures that combine the Side and Volume buttons in place of the missing Home button. Common features, like talking to Siri, opening Apple Pay, and closing apps, now have unique gestures that utilize your phone's physical buttons, Face ID, and the touch screen. This article covers all the tips you need to know, like how to use Reachability, take a screenshot, and how to temporarily disable Face ID on the iPhone X, XS, XS Max, and XR. Let’s get started with how to use gestures to navigate iPhone models X and later.

Without a Home button, how do you go back to Home screen from within an app on the iPhone X? Using gestures. A simple swipe up from the horizontal bar at the bottom will do the trick. iPhone Home screen has been around forever; we’re just accustomed to going back to Home screen by using the Home button. This is one of those things you’ll have to get used to with the iPhone X, but I promise it doesn’t take long for the new method to become intuitive. If you’re having trouble figuring out how to go to Home screen on your iPhone X, here’s how to return to Home screen using your new best friend: gestures.

There are two different ways to close apps on the iPhone. You can close an app by returning to Home screen, but it will still be in the background. To completely close an app, or force close an app that isn’t working properly, you’ll need to open the App Switcher. Since the iPhone X has no Home button, the ways in which you close apps on iPhone is the same but performed differently. We’ll go over how to close apps and how to force quit apps on your new iPhone X.

Drag & Drop in iOS 11 is mostly for iPad users; however, the iPhone is also perfectly capable of dragging multiple items, such as apps or photos, and dropping them somewhere else. Which means you can select multiple apps that you want to drop into a folder on your iPhone or iPad. Here’s how to move multiple apps at once with iOS 11 on iPhone.

Sometimes you need to hide apps on your iPhone from others who might snoop. Or from yourself, if there’s a game you’re particularly addicted to. To start, hide the app on your iPhone by using app folders. Next, hide it from iPhone Search and in your iPhone’s App Store purchase history. You can even get rid of Apple’s pre-installed apps while you’re at it. Here’s how to hide apps on your iPhone using each of these methods. And how to find hidden apps on your iPhone—just in case you hide them too well.

Did you know that you can customize your dock? You can place your favorite apps in the dock for easy access anytime. There are some default apps in your dock, but if you use different apps most frequently, you may want to move them to the dock. I am also going to tell you how I have my iPhone dock set up and why. I invite you to share what apps you have in your dock. Just know that there are no right or wrong answers here. Here's how to customize your iPhone dock. 

If you enjoy downloading and trying new apps, the Home screen on your iPhone or iPad will quickly fill up with little app icons. At a certain point, you may want to organize those apps into folders, which you can label. I’ll go over everything you need to know about organizing your home screen on the iPhone or iPad, including how to move app icons, how to create and add folders to your Home screen, and how to put those apps into the new folders. Creating a folder is fairly easy once you get the hang of it, and you can create new folders on iPhone for all the different categories of apps you might have. On my Home screen, I have a folder dedicated to Apple apps, games, productivity, social media, and more. 

Sometimes you need to do some app housecleaning. Maybe your kid moved your apps around, or maybe you just want to see what apps you have. For example, I have 69 apps on the first screen and 67 on the second. Of course, they’re in folders, but sometimes I lose track and need to do an app purge. If you’re like me, or just need a fresh start, take a few quick steps in your settings to restore apps to their original default Apple layout. 

Getting rid of unused and unwanted iPhone and iPad apps can feel like a chore. In this article, we'll cover how to remove unwanted apps using your iPhone's Settings menu. Most people know how to delete apps by tapping and holding an app icon until they all start wiggling, but did you know there's another method to offload apps from your iPad and iPhone? This alternate app-removing option is perfect for someone who needs to delete multiple apps quickly. Let's go over the two methods for erasing apps and freeing up storage space on your iOS device.

If your Maps app icon is missing from Home screen on your iPhone, you’re probably wondering, “how to I get the Maps app back?” Retrieving deleted apps on iPhone is, luckily, very easy to do. iOS 10 gave us the option to delete apps that came with the iPhone. While the hidden Apple stock apps you remove aren’t deleted completely, they are out of sight and out of mind. So if the Maps icon is missing and you want to reinstall the Maps app, we’ll show you how to get it back. I’ll also share an easy trick so you always know where Maps is on your iPhone. Maps app disappeared from iPhone? Here’s how to get Maps app back on iPhone.

If your iTunes app store icon is missing from Home screen on your iPhone, you’re probably wondering, “how do I get the iTunes app back?” Retrieving deleted apps on iPhone is, luckily, very easy to do. iOS 10 gave us the option to delete apps that came with the iPhone. While the Apple stock apps you remove aren’t deleted completely, they are out of sight and out of mind. So if the iTunes icon is missing and you want to reinstall the iTunes app, we’ll show you how to get it back. I’ll also share an easy trick so you always know where iTunes is on your iPhone. iTunes app disappeared from iPhone? Here’s how to get the iTunes app back on iPhone.

Folders are a great way to organize your apps, especially if your apps are beginning to pile up. Lots of apps use notification badges to let you know there’s a task to complete within the app or new content to check. But when those apps are in a folder, the notifications badges are added together to give you one number in a red circle. However, you can 3D Touch a folder to see what specific apps have unchecked notifications. Here’s how to 3D Touch a folder to see app notification badges.

3D Touch on iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 6s, and 6s Plus allows you to jump into a specific place within an app using Quick Actions. This is done from Home screen by 3D Touching an app icon. Options for jumping into the app will pop up and you can select one. For example, the Settings app has Quick Actions for jumping to the settings for Wi-Fi, Battery, Bluetooth, and Cellular Data. Here’s how to jump into apps with 3D Touch on iPhone.

iPhones with 3D Touch have Quick Actions that allow you to activate 3D Touch by hard-pressing an app and revealing places within that app you can quickly jump into. For example, when you 3D Touch the Settings app, you see multiple options, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Battery. By tapping on of the options, you’ll jump into that place within the app. You can do a similar thing with the Phone app on iPhone. Except when you 3D Touch the Phone app, your options include Create a New Contact. Here’s how to create a new contact from the Home screen with 3D Touch.