Open apps on iPhone

Get to know the Home Screen and apps on your iPhone. The Home Screen shows all your apps organized into pages. More pages are added when you need space for apps.

You can also find your apps in the App Library—a space at the end of your Home Screen pages where your apps are organized in a simple, easy-to-navigate view.

Open apps on the Home Screen

To go to the Home Screen, swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen (on an iPhone with Face ID) or press the Home button (on an iPhone with a Home button).
Swipe left or right to browse apps on other Home Screen pages.
To open an app, tap its icon.
To return to the first Home Screen page, swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen (on an iPhone with Face ID) or press the Home button (on an iPhone with a Home button).

You can move, organize, or remove apps. See Move and organize apps on iPhone and Remove apps from iPhone.

Explore the App Library

The App Library automatically sorts your apps by category, such as Creativity, Social, Entertainment, and so on. The apps you use most are near the top of the screen and at the top level of their categories, so you can easily locate and open them.

To find the App Library, go to the Home Screen, then swipe left past all your Home Screen pages.

The iPhone App Library showing the apps organized by category (Utilities, Creativity, Social, Entertainment, and so on).

In the App Library, you can do any of the following:

Open an app: Tap the app, if it’s visible.
Expand a category: If a category has more apps below the top level (indicated by a few small app icons), tap the small icons to see all the apps in the category.
Search for apps: Tap the search field at the top of the screen to see your apps listed alphabetically. Type an app name in the search field to find it.
Perform quick actions: Touch and hold an app to open a quick actions menu.
Note: If you touch and hold an app for too long before choosing a quick action, all of the apps begin to jiggle. Tap Done (on an iPhone with Face ID) or press the Home button (on an iPhone with a Home button), then try again.
Add an app to the Home Screen: Touch and hold the app to open a quick actions menu, then choose Add to Home Screen (available only if the app isn’t already on the Home Screen). The app still appears in the App Library.
Delete an app from iPhone: Touch and hold the app, choose Delete App, then tap Delete. (This removes the app from the Home Screen and the App Library.) See Remove apps.

Note: You can add new apps from the App Store to both the Home Screen and App Library or just the App Library. Go to Settings > Home Screen, then tap either Add to Home Screen or App Library Only. You can also have app notification badges appear on apps in the App Library by turning on Show in App Library.

Hide and show Home Screen pages

Because you can find all of your apps in the App Library, you might not need as many Home Screen pages for apps. You can hide some Home Screen pages, which brings the App Library closer to the first page of your Home Screen. (When you want to see the pages again, you can show them.)

Touch and hold the Home Screen.
The apps begin to jiggle.
Tap the dots at the bottom of the screen.
Thumbnail images of your Home Screen pages appear with checkmarks below them.
To hide pages, tap to remove the checkmarks below the thumbnails of the pages you don’t need.
To show hidden pages, tap to add the checkmarks.
Tap Done twice (on an iPhone with Face ID) or press the Home button twice (on an iPhone with a Home button).

With the extra Home Screen pages hidden, you can go from the first page of the Home Screen to the App Library (and back) with only one or two swipes.

Note: When Home Screen pages are hidden, new apps you download from the App Store may be added to the App Library instead of the Home Screen.

Helpful?

iPhone User Guide

Open apps on iPhone

Open apps on the Home Screen

Explore the App Library

Hide and show Home Screen pages