Are you annoyed by your friends snooping on your phone to check what apps you use? If yes, you can hide your apps on your iPhone to make them inaccessible to others. If you are new to the iPhone, it’s worth mentioning that hiding apps on the home screen are possible.
If you want to learn about how to delete hidden purchased apps on iPhone, you are in the right place. In this article, you will also get to know why you need to hide your apps and how to do that.
Why You Need to Hide Purchased Apps
Among the plenty of reasons to hide purchased apps on iPhone the most common ones are mentioned in the upcoming section.
- Keep Home Screen Organized
One major reason to hide apps from the home screen on your iPhone is pretty much relevant to personal preferences. Users who want to keep their devices organized often prefer hiding apps so that they won’t appear on the Home Screen. Hiding apps doesn’t mean that they are deleted. They still exist on your phone but in a hidden mode.
However, if you hide apps, how will you keep track of your purchased application, as it’s not always possible to sign in to the Apple ID to check the downloads? How about capturing a screenshot of the iPhone screen and saving it in the Photos app? Using key combinations is the answer if you are thinking about how do I take a screenshot on my Mac, which is another thing to consider.
- Maintain Your Privacy
Protecting your privacy on your smartphone is an essential yet challenging task. Hiding apps is one possible way to maintain your privacy, as it prevents others from accessing the apps you are using on your phone. Your close friends or sibling peeps in your phone to keep a check on the apps that you are using.
If you hide your apps on your iPhone, they will not be visible on the home screen, and others will not b able to access them. Hiding the apps also prevents unauthorized access to data as no one can open or sign in to the hidden apps. You will need your Apple ID and password credentials to hide and unhide the apps, which adds security to your data.
Now, let’s move on to the procedure of deleting hidden purchased apps on the iPhone.
How to Remove Hidden Purchased Apps on iPhone
You can hide an app when you don’t want to see it in the list of purchases in your iPhone’s App Store. To redownload the app, you can unhide it anytime. The app still appears in your purchase history in the Settings. If you hide the app, your family members won’t be able to redownload it from shared purchases, even if you have Family Sharing.
- Delete Hidden Purchased App From App Store
If you are searching for how to delete hidden purchased apps on iPhone, you can do it by navigating to the App Store. Tap on the Updates tab and scroll down to find the Purchased option. Then click on the Not on This iPhone tab and highlight the app that you want to delete. Click on Delete and confirm the selection. The hidden purchased app will get deleted from the iPhone.
However, if you wish to remove an app permanently from your iOS device, the first step is to get rid of it from the Home Screen. To delete it, tap and continue holding the app until it starts to wiggle, and click on the X sign displayed on the top left side of the screen. After deleting all hidden apps, go to Settings, tap General, click Storage & iCloud Usage and select Manage Storage.
- Delete Hide App Purchase History on iPhone
To delete the hide purchase history on your iPhone, go to the Settings app, click on iTunes & App Store and then select View Apple ID. Once you enter the Apple ID password, the phone will take you to the Account Settings page. Scroll down to select the Purchase History, and then tap on the Hide App Purchase History.
To permanently delete the hidden apps from your Apple smartphone, go to the Settings app, and click General. Find the Usage tab and you will see a list of apps downloaded on the iPhone. All hidden apps will be displayed with a purple icon. To delete these apps, tap on the app and click Delete App.
Sometimes, we purchase an app accidentally by hitting the Purchase button in the App Store. If this happens to you, cancel the app purchase immediately in a stipulated time to save money.
Cancel an Accidental App Purchase From App Store
After making an accidental purchase on an iPhone or iPad, it is possible to cancel the purchase within 15 minutes. Click on the App Store on the Home Screen. Scroll down to the bottom of the Featured tab and click on Purchased. Click on the Not On This iPhone tab.
