Did you, for example, know that you could easily use the App Library in list form as opposed to the default categories? Or that you could hide apps from the Home screen but still access them via the App Library? In fact, there are lots of ways to use the App Library to streamline the Home screen experience. Let’s check out the best App Library tips and tricks for the iPhone below.
1. Expand Categories
Categories within the App Library look similar to Home screen folders. But unlike folders, categories don’t reveal all included apps unless you know where to tap. If a category contains five or more apps, tap the group of smaller-sized icons to the lower-right corner of the category. It should then expand and reveal all apps within.
2. Use Contextual Menus
Just like on the Home screen, you can easily use Haptic Touch (long-press) gestures to reveal contextual menus for all apps within the App Library. Quite useful if you want to open a certain function of an app straight off the bat—such as a Private tab in Safari. Or if you want to delete apps quickly.
3. Bring Up List View
The App Library doesn’t let you move apps between categories. Nor does it let you create custom categories. That wouldn’t matter if the App Library did a great job of categorizing your apps. But that’s sadly not the case. For example, you will see Safari within the Productivity category, but Chrome listed under Utilities. Instead of wasting precious seconds searching for the correct category, perform a swipe down gesture to convert the entire App Library into an alphabetically-sorted list. You can then scroll down to quickly locate the app that you want. Use the alphabet strip to the right side of the screen to get to apps even faster.
4. Hide Non-essential Apps
You can tone down the number of non-essential apps on your iPhone’s Home screen pages by relegating them solely to the App Library. Just long-press the app that you want to remove from the Home screen, and then tap Remove App. Tap ‘Remove from Home Screen’ again to confirm. Whenever you want to open the app, head into the App Library, locate the app icon, and tap it. You can also use your iPhone’s Search functionality (swipe down on any Home screen page) to open a hidden app.
5. Add to App Library Only
Rather than cluttering up the Home screen with new apps that you install from the App Store, you can choose to add them only to the App Library. Head into the iPhone’s Settings app, and then tap Home screen. Underneath the New App Downloads section, select App Library Only.
6. Back to Home Screen
You can add previously hidden apps (or apps installed directly to the App Library) back into the Home screen. Start by long-pressing an app within the App Library. On the contextual menu, tap Add to Home Screen. Alternatively, tap and drag the app to bring it out onto the Home screen.
7. Bring App Library Closer
Getting to the App Library can be a drag if you’ve got loads of Home screen pages on your iPhone. Why not make things easier by hiding unwanted pages? Start by jiggling the Home screen—tap and hold any vacant area to do that. Next, tap the Home page strip above the dock to enter the Edit Pages screen. You can then hide any Home screen page (you must keep at least one remaining) easily. You can also put all important apps and widgets into a single Home page and hide the rest—that should put the App Library at just a touch away.
8. Enable Notification Badges
By default, apps within the App Library don’t show notifications badges. That is not ideal if you plan to rely on it a lot to access your apps. Head into the iPhone Settings app, tap Home Screen, and then turn on the switch next to Enable Notification Badges. That should enable notification badges on the App Library.
9. Use Those Suggestions
The Suggestions category appearing at the top of the App Library shows useful apps based on your past activity with the aid of machine learning. It’s easy to overlook the Suggestions category once you’ve used the App Library for a while, so remember to give it a peek once every so often. You may find the app that you were looking to get to listed right within the Suggestions category itself.
The New Librarian
The inclusion of the App Library shall forever change how you go about using your iPhone, and the tips that you just went through should help you make the most of it. Also, don’t forget to spice up your Home screen with other exciting iOS 14 additions such as the Smart Stack of widgets. Next up: You can now pin conversations in iMessage, as well as do a whole lot of other stuff. Click the link below to learn how to do that.
