If you have downloaded dozens of applications on your iPhone, your Home Screen can quickly become a chaotic mess of colorful icons spread across multiple pages. Swiping endlessly to find a specific app is frustrating and inefficient. To regain control of your digital workspace, iOS allows you to group related applications together into dedicated folders, dramatically reducing clutter and organizing your phone into logical categories.
How to Create a New App Folder
Creating a folder relies entirely on Apple’s intuitive drag-and-drop touch interface. You essentially smash two app icons together to generate a container.
- Navigate to the Home Screen page containing the apps you want to group.
- Press and hold your finger firmly on any empty space on the Home Screen (or press and hold directly on an app icon) until all the icons begin to jiggle. This indicates you have entered “Edit Mode.”
- Place your finger on the first app you want to put in a folder.
- Drag that app icon directly on top of another app icon that you want to group it with.
- Hold it there for a split second. A grey, square box will suddenly appear around the two apps, indicating a folder has been created.
- Release your finger to drop the app into the new folder.
How to Name or Rename Your Folder
When you create a folder, iOS uses built-in artificial intelligence to attempt to name it automatically based on the categories of the apps inside (e.g., grouping a calculator and a banking app might automatically be named “Finance”). You can easily change this to something more personal.
- While the icons are still jiggling in Edit Mode, tap the newly created folder to open it.
- At the very top of the open folder, you will see the current name with a small “X” next to it.
- Tap the name or the “X” to delete the current title.
- Type in your desired custom name using the keyboard. You can even use emojis in the folder name for a visual touch.
- Tap anywhere outside the folder (or press the “Done” button in the top right corner of your screen on newer iPhones, or press the physical Home button on older models) to save the changes and exit Edit Mode.
How to Remove Apps from a Folder
If you change your mind and want to take an app back out of a folder, the process is just as simple.
- Enter Edit Mode by pressing and holding an empty space on the Home Screen until the icons jiggle.
- Tap the folder to open it.
- Press and hold your finger on the app you wish to remove.
- Drag the app completely outside of the grey folder box and onto the main Home Screen area.
- Release your finger to drop it back onto the normal grid.
Important Note: If you remove every single app from a folder using this method, the folder itself will automatically delete. Empty folders cannot exist on an iPhone Home Screen.