How To Add Apps to your Mobile Device Home Screen

Today’s technology has provided smartphone users with apps for nearly everything. You can even download an app to remind you when to drink water. However, this can easily make your phone seem cluttered and disorganized. To prevent this, most people prefer placing their most important mobile apps on their Home Screen.

To make your app organizing experience easy, this article will outline how you can add your favorite apps to your phone’s Home Screen on multiple devices.

Adding Apps to Home Screen on iPhone

Adding apps to your iPhone’s Home Screen is straightforward. You can do it from your iPhone’s App Library, which contains all the apps installed on your phone. They’re usually sorted into categories like “Social,” “Recently Added,” “Suggestions,” etc. To find your apps more easily, you can also search them by name.

Here’s how to add apps to your Home Screen from the App Library:

1. Swipe left from your Home Screen until you reach the App Library.
   
2. Search the app inside the groups or tap the search bar and type in the name of the app you’re looking for.
   
3. Tap and hold the icon of the app until a small menu opens.
   
4. Click “Add to Home Screen.” You can also long-press the app icon and drag it back to the Home Screen.
   
5. The app will appear in an available space on your Home Screen when you go back to it.
   

Add Apps to Home Screen Immediately After Download on iPhone

If you want an app to appear on your Home Screen immediately after download, you can enable this with one click. Here are the instructions:

1. Go to iPhone’s “Settings.”
   
2. Find the “Home Screen” section.
   
3. Under “New App Downloads,” change the setting to “Add to Home Screen.”
   

Adding Apps to Home Screen on Android

Similarly to an iPhone device, an Android phone also has a place where you can find all the apps installed on your phone. This is known as the App Drawer.

Here’s how to add apps to your Home Screen on Android:

1. Swipe up from the bottom of your Home Screen.
   
2. Tap the search bar and type the name of the app you’re looking for or find the app on the App Drawer pages manually.
   
3. Press and hold the app you wish to add to your Home Screen and wait for a small menu to open.
   
4. Tap “Add to Home.” You can also hold the app icon for longer, and it will take you to your Home Screen where you can place the app wherever you want.
   

Add Apps to Home Screen Immediately After Download on Android

If you want new apps to appear on your Home Screen automatically, you can enable this setting with these steps:

1. Go to your Android’s “Settings.”
   
2. Find “Home Screen.”
   
3. Enable the “Add new apps to Home Screen” by clicking on the toggle next to it.
   

How to Remove Apps from Your Home Screen

Although smartphones allow you to customize your Home Screen grid and make the app icons smaller so you can fit more of them, too many apps on your Home Screen can bring back the problem of clutter. To prevent this, you can remove the apps you no longer use that often and make space for new apps you need at your fingertips.

On iPhone

To remove apps from your iPhone’s Home Screen, do these steps:

1. Find the app you wish to remove from your Homsecreen.
   
2. Tap and hold the app until a small menu appears.
   
3. Click “Remove App.”
   
4. Confirm your choices by clicking “Remove from Home Screen.”
   
5. The app will now only be available in the App Library.

On Android

To remove an app from your Android, follow these steps:

1. Find the app you wish to remove from your Homsecreen.
   
2. Tap and hold the app until a small menu appears.
   
3. Click “Remove.”
   
4. The app will now only be available in the App Drawer.

How to Hide Apps from Your Home Screen on Android

Hiding apps from your Home Screen sounds similar to removing them, but it has a slight difference. Removing the app still leaves the app in your App Drawer. On the other hand, hiding the app removes it from the App Drawer and the search bar, and to add them to your Home Screen again, you’ll have to revisit the settings and unhide them. Here’s how this option works:

1. Go to Android’s “Settings.”
   
2. Click “Home Screen.”
   
3. Go to “Hide apps on Home and App screens.”
   
4. Select the apps you wish to hide.
   
5. Click “Done.”
   

To unhide the apps, repeat the same process and unselect the apps you wish to unhide.

How to Reset Your Home Screen

Once you’ve changed the layout of your Home Screen, it’s difficult to remember what it looked like originally. Fortunately, your smartphones allow you to reset your Home or App screens back to their original layout, which is usually by their alphabetical order.

On iPhone

To reset your Home Screen on your iPhone device, do these steps:

1. Go to your iPhone’s “Settings.”
   
2. Click “general.”
   
3. Click “Transfer or Reset.”
   
4. Click “Reset.”
   
5. Find “Reset Home Screen Layout.”
   

All the folders you’ve created will disappear, and all the apps on your phone will be arranged alphabetically.

On Android

On your Android device, you can reset the Home Screen layout by clearing storage on its default launcher. For Samsung Galaxy Phones, this is the One UI Home app or Samsung Experience Home app, but other Android phones might use different apps (e.g., Pixel Launcher). Here’s how to reset your Home Screen layout on Android phones:

1. Go to your Android’s “Settings.”
   
2. Tap “Apps.”
   
3. Find One UI Home app or Samsung Experience Home app. You can find it more easily by typing the app’s name into the search bar.
   
4. Click “Storage.”
   
5. Tap “Clear data.”
   

FAQs

How to add widgets to your Home Screen

Since some apps come with their respective widgets, you can easily add them to your Home Screen for easier access to some of their features. To add an app’s widget, long-press the app, click on the widgets icon, choose a widget if the app has multiple, and press “Add.” The widget should appear on the available space on your Home Screen. To remove it from your Home Screen, long-press the widget and tap “Remove.”

How to hide a whole app page on iPhone

To hide a whole page on your iPhone, long-press the “Search” button at the bottom of your Homsecreen until the apps start shaking. Click on the three dots that replaced the “Search” button. You’ll see all the pages on your screen. Remove the checkmark under the ones which you want to hide. Click “Done” to finish.

How to Group Apps on Your Home Screen

Grouping apps into folders is another way to keep your phone pages more organized. You can do this on both your Home Screen and the App Library for iPhone or the App Drawer for Android. For Android, long-press the app and drag it to an existing folder, or long-press the app, press “Select,” add at least one more app, and then “Create a folder.” On iPhone, long-press the screen and drag other apps onto the apps you wish to group them with. Then add more apps by dragging them into the folder.

Organize Your Time With an Organized Home Screen

Smartphones are our quick and easy access to the world. Therefore, it’s important to keep them tidy and organized, especially your Home Screen, as the first thing you see when you unlock your phone. Use the tips from this article to ensure that spending time on your phone is done productively and efficiently.

Have you already tried adding your favorite apps to your Home Screen? Did you use any of the tips from this article? Tell us in the comment section below.