Can You Delete the Apps That Come With the iPhone?

Most of the apps that come pre-installed on every iPhone are useful. From Music to Calendar, Camera to Phone and beyond, they're great apps for what most people want to do. But there are more apps that come pre-installed on every iPhone—like Compass, Calculator, Reminders, Tips, and others—that many people never use.

Why show apps on your phone if you don't use them, especially if you're running out of storage space on your phone? In that case, you may have wondered if you can delete the built-in apps that come with your iPhone. The short answer is yes.

Deleting Pre-Installed Apps Depends on Your Operating System

Starting with iOS 10, users could delete pre-installed apps.

With iOS 14 and higher, the number of removable Apple apps doesn't expand, but users can also choose to hide them from the home screen rather than delete them.

How to Delete Pre-Installed Apps

To delete built-in iPhone apps in iOS 14 and up, you can remove an app from the App Library by holding it and selecting Delete App > Delete.

Not all default iPhone apps can be deleted. The eligible apps starting with iOS 10, include: 

Other pre-installed apps that can be deleted in iOS 16 and up, include:

• Health
• Fitness
• Find My
• Shortcuts
• Translate
• Wallet (but passes and cards remain in iCloud)

Apps for the App Store, Camera, Messages, Phone, Photos, Safari, and Settings are locked in and can't be deleted—though you can hide them.

How to Hide Pre-installed Apps in iOS 14 and Newer

With the release of iOS 14, Apple introduced the option to hide unwanted apps from your Home screen. The process is similar to deleting an app, but with a different menu selection.

In iOS 14 or later, tap and hold an app icon until it starts to wiggle. Then select Remove App > Remove from Home Screen. The app icon will disappear and won't be back to bother you unless you decide you want it to.

To return hidden apps from your App Library, go to the App store and search for the hidden app, then tap and hold the app's icon and select Add to Home Screen.

How to Hide iPhone Apps Using Restrictions in iOS 9 or Older

For iOS 9 devices, deleting built-in apps wasn't possible, but using the built-in Restrictions (or Content & Privacy Restrictions) feature was a workaround to hide (but not remove) apps and services on your phone.

This is a feature you can use in newer iOS versions as well. It's most often used with kids or company-issued phones.

With iPhone content restrictions turned on, you can hide or set boundaries for the following apps: 

When the apps are blocked, they'll disappear from the phone as if they've been deleted. In this case, though, you can get them back by turning off restrictions or changing your settings.

How to Hide iPhone Apps in Folders

If you'd rather not enable Content & Privacy Restrictions or tuck apps away in your App Library, you can also just hide them in folders. To do that:

• Create a folder: Once you set up folders, you an put all the apps that you want to hide in it
• Organize folders: With folders created, you can move them to their own home screens (by dragging the folder to the right edge of the screen until it moves to a new screen), away from all the rest of your apps.

This approach doesn't help if you want to delete the stock apps to save storage space, but it's pretty effective if you just want to declutter.