How To Use The New iPhone App Library In iOS 14
Last updated on August 7th, 2022 at 09:34 am
Posted in How To by Tyrone on July 7, 2020This new space hosts all apps available on your iPhone into a single screen, that’s easy to navigate. Applications are automatically curated into categories like Social, Productivity, Creativity and many others.
There are also special categories like Suggestions and Recently Added, to provide easy access to the apps that you use the most!
How To Open App Library On iPhone
As mentioned above, you need to swipe until the end of the Home Screen to bring up the App Library section. The less pages you have displayed on the Home Screen the quicker you will be able to open App Library.
Trick: iOS 14 allows you to hide Home Screen pages. You can move pages with apps that you rarely use in the background. All that you have to do is enter the Home Screen Edit mode, tap the pagination dots and un-check the app cards that you want to hide. A detailed step-by-step tutorial is available here.
iPhone App Library Layout
1. App Library Search
In iOS 14, at the top of the App Library, you’ll find the search field. Tap it, or swipe-down anywhere on the screen, to enter the search mode. Apps are displayed in alphabetical order.
You can scroll to find your favorite app, using the starting letter of the app’s name.
A quicker method is to type the name of the app in the search field. As soon as you type the first letters you get search suggestions that narrow your search. Tap on the app’s name to open the application.
2. Categories Grid
Below the search field you will have a 2-column grid with app categories. These sections are automatically curated, as all available apps on your iPhone are sorted.
They include both single app icons as well as an incon that’s designated for an entire folders.
Tips: Long-press an app icon to bring up the quick-actions menu.
Tap an app to open it. Tap a folder to expand it.
App Library Categories
iOS 14 comes with two special categories: Suggestions and Recently Added. As well as many other categories based on the types of the apps.
1.Suggestions
The Suggestions category is the first section displayed under the app search field. It contains apps that you’re likely to use based on previous usage. There are several factors taken into consideration such as time, location and activity.
Fact: Suggestions displays 4 app icons distributed in a 2 by 2 squared interface.
2. Recently Added
This is the 2nd pinned category in the iOS 14 App Library space. It contains apps that have been recently downloaded from the App Store.
App Clips that have been recently launched are also included in the Recently Added section.
Recently Added also comes in a squared interface as all other App Library categories. The 4th icon, is often replaced with a folder. Tap it to expand and preview all apps from a folder.
3. Other Categories
Automatically generated categories by the App Library are: Social, Productivity, Creativity, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Reference & Reading, Health & Fitness, Utilities, Education and Other.
Fact: Categories and apps intelligently reorder based on how often or how rare you use the apps.
Trick: Use this tip to tweak the suggested apps in your App Library folders!
iPhone App Library Quick Actions
– Long-press on an empty space in the app library screen to enter the ‘jiggle mode’. Press the ‘x’ to delete the app in question. Drag & drop the app to an iPhone Home screen.
– Long-press an app icon to bring up the quick-actions menu.
– Long-press a folder thumbnail to expand it.
iOS 14 App Library Video Tutorial
To see how App Library works and check out the above mentioned tips and tricks, we’ve created a detailed video tutorial:
Do you plan to integrate the App Library in your daily Home Screen usage? Or you prefer to stick with the traditional layout? Let us know in the comments section available below.
Related: The App Library isn’t the only new thing about the Home Screen in iOS 14. Check out our extended review about the new iPhone widgets.