Tips for Organizing your Apps on an iPad and iPhone

If you use an iPad or an iPhone you will notice that on the home screen you have a bunch of different apps. These could be apps that came preloaded on to your device or ones that you have downloaded from the App Store. During this lesson we want to show you how to move, categorize, and delete apps from your iPad and iPhone. If you aren’t too familiar with apps be sure to check out our lessons all about in the Get to know your iPad Course in the section There’s an App for that: Introduction to Apps.

How to move Apps on your Home Screen

You may have several pages of apps on your iPad and iPhone or you may just have one but it is always good to make sure the apps you use the most are on your first page of the home screen or on the bottom task bar so that you can easily access them. Below are the instructions on how to move apps around.

To move apps around on your home screen, we will show you two ways you can do this on both an iPad and iPhone. The first way is demonstrated on the iPad in the video below. The second way is demonstrated on the iPhone in the second video.

iPad

Step 1: Press and hold on the app you would like to move. You will notice the apps start to jiggle. With your finger still on the app, start to drag the app to where you want it to go and then lift your finger off the screen once it is in the spot you want it to be.

iPhone

Step 1: Press and hold on the app that you would like to move. You will notice a menu appears. Choose the menu option titled Edit Home Screen. All of your apps will start to jiggle. Now you can use your finger to drag the app you want to move. Once you move it to where you want it, lift your finger off the screen.

How to Categorize your Apps

If you would like to stay organized and categorize your apps on your home screen you can do that in a few simple steps.

Videos demonstrating this on both an iPad and iPhone are posted below.

iPad

iPhone

Step 1: Press and hold on an app and start to drag the app over top of another app. This will allow you to place both apps into a category. For example, if you use Facebook and Instagram, you can drag the Facebook app on top of the Instagram one and you will see that a folder is created that can be titled Social Media. Now whenever you download a social media app, you can categorize them all into one folder.

How to Delete Apps

There may be apps you don’t need anymore or maybe you want to clear up storage on your device. Let’s look at the steps on how to delete apps. Remember, once you delete an app you can always download it again later if you need to.

Videos demonstrating this on both an iPad and iPhone are posted below.

iPad

iPhone

Step 1: If you need to delete an app, all you need to do is press and hold on the app you would like to delete. A menu will appear. Tap on the option Remove app and then tap on Delete and then you will be asked again if you would like to delete the app. Tap on Delete.