The Apple News app is a pre-installed application on iOS devices designed to curate and deliver news articles from various publishers. While it provides a streamlined reading experience, it can be a significant distraction in educational environments, corporate settings, or on shared kiosks. Furthermore, organizations deploying managed devices may want to restrict users from consuming non-work-related media or accessing external web content hosted within the News app’s internal browser view.
This guide explains how to completely disable the native News app system-wide on an iPhone using Screen Time restrictions, effectively hiding the app and preventing users from accessing its content or widgets.
Disable the News App via Screen Time
While users can delete the News app from the Home Screen, they can easily redownload it from the App Store if they have an active Apple ID. To enforce a persistent block that requires a secure PIN to bypass, we must use Apple’s native Content & Privacy Restrictions.
- Unlock your iPhone and open the main Settings app.
- Scroll down and tap on Screen Time.
- If you haven’t already, tap “Turn On Screen Time”. Ensure you tap Use Screen Time Passcode to establish a secure PIN. This is critical to prevent unauthorized changes.
- Tap on Content & Privacy Restrictions.
- Toggle the main switch at the top for Content & Privacy Restrictions to the On (green) position.
- Tap on Allowed Apps.
- Locate News in the alphabetical list of core native applications.
- Toggle the switch next to News to the Off (grey) position.
Verify the App Lockdown
Toggling this switch instructs the iOS kernel to sandbox the application binary, completely removing its icon from the user interface and disabling its associated widgets and background refresh capabilities.
To verify the lockdown is successful, return to your iPhone’s Home Screen. The red News app icon will have disappeared. Swipe down to invoke Spotlight Search and type “News.” The native app will not appear as a launchable option in the results. Furthermore, swiping to the left-most screen to view the Today View will show that any active Apple News widgets have been automatically removed or disabled. You have successfully enforced strict application restrictions on the device.