Roger Fingas
Changes to iTunes metadata suggest that Apple will soon make it easier to hide first-party apps on the iOS homescreen, solving a long-standing complaint of iPhone and iPad owners.
Titles on the App Store now have two new keys, "isFirstParty" and "isFirstPartyHideableApp," according to App Advice. The code strings reportedly began appearing a few weeks ago, although their values have so far been set to "false."
That may mean that a future version of iOS will let people hide more — though probably not all — default apps. Users have complained that unwanted Apple apps still take up space on the homescreen, and must be moved into folders or separate pages to make room, since they normally can't be deleted.
One exception is iCloud Drive, toggled on or off through the Settings app's iCloud menu. Apple's Configurator tool can also be used to strip native apps, but is intended for businesses, schools, and other organizations.
In September Apple CEO Tim Cook explained that while some default apps can't be removed because of interdependencies, others don't share the same burden and are likely to be removable in the future. Conceivably Apple could implement a way of hiding apps in a later iOS 9 update, or let the feature wait until iOS 10.
Chip Loder
Marko Zivkovic
Wesley Hilliard
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
39 Comments
In before the complaints from entitled maniacs about not being able to completely uninstall the Apps.
Hiding them is more than generous.
I don't know what that means. All I've ever heard as reasons to remove stock Apps is:
1) Free up space
2) Because I own the device and should be able to.
And to both points I say, GTFO. The stock Apps take up negligible space, and no you don't own the OS or any of the software on the device. You may think you own the metal and glass brick around it, and if your device is paid off maybe you do, but that is it. You are not entitled to a goddamn thing.
Thank you Apple! Looking forward to being able to unclutter my screen a bit
Apple still needs to incrementally improve 1st party(stock) installed Apps like Calendar,text/messages, phone dialer, Notes,Contacts,email, etc. For most iphone users, stock apps does the job well than why not improve little by little those apps.