How to Turn Off Suggested Apps on Android

Decluttering Your App Drawer

Modern Android smartphones are designed to learn your habits. If you consistently open the Spotify app every morning at 8:00 AM, or always open Google Maps before you leave the office at 5:00 PM, the operating system notices these patterns. In an attempt to be helpful, Android uses this data to populate a “Suggested Apps” row at the very top of your app drawer, placing the applications it thinks you want to use right at your fingertips.

While this predictive technology can save you a split second of scrolling, many users find it incredibly frustrating. Because the suggestions are constantly shifting based on the time of day, your muscle memory becomes useless. You might reach for the top-left corner expecting to find WhatsApp, only to accidentally open the Calculator because the system swapped the icons while your phone was in your pocket. Furthermore, having algorithms constantly tracking your usage patterns can feel like a minor privacy intrusion.

If you prefer a static, predictable, and alphabetically ordered app drawer where the icons always stay in the exact same place, you can easily turn off Android’s app suggestions.

How to Turn Off App Suggestions (Google Pixel / Stock Android)

If you are using a Google Pixel, a Motorola device, or any phone running a clean, “stock” version of Android, the suggestions are controlled directly by the default home screen launcher.

1. Unlock your phone and navigate to the primary Home screen.
2. Find an empty space on the screen (where there are no app icons or widgets).
3. Press and hold your finger on the empty space for about two seconds until a small menu pops up.
4. Tap on Home settings.
5. In the settings menu, look for an option labelled Suggestions (on some older Android versions, this might be located under a sub-menu called “App drawer”).
6. You will see two toggle switches:
   • Suggestions on Home screen: This controls the empty spaces on your main screen where Android might temporarily place an icon.
   • Suggestions in all apps list: This controls the top row of predictive icons inside your main app drawer.
7. Turn both toggle switches Off.

Swipe up to open your app drawer, and you will immediately notice the top row is gone. Your apps will now be displayed in a strict, unchanging alphabetical list.

How to Turn Off App Suggestions (Samsung Galaxy)

Samsung heavily modifies the Android operating system with its own software, known as One UI. Because Samsung uses a different home screen launcher, the process is slightly different, and they actually place the suggested apps inside the search menu rather than the main drawer.

1. Unlock your Samsung Galaxy and swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open the app drawer.
2. Look at the very top of the screen. You will see a search bar.
3. Tap the three vertical dots located on the far right side of the search bar.
4. Select Settings from the small drop-down menu.
5. Look for a toggle switch labelled Show suggested apps.
6. Tap the toggle to turn it Off.

Now, when you tap the search bar to look for a specific application, Samsung will no longer populate the screen with a grid of its own algorithmic predictions.

Does Turning This Off Save Battery?

While the primary benefit of turning off suggested apps is reclaiming the predictability of your interface, it does have a microscopic positive impact on battery life and system performance. The algorithms responsible for tracking your usage patterns and updating the interface constantly run as background processes. Disabling the feature stops this continuous background calculation. While you won’t suddenly gain hours of battery life, every little bit helps when trying to optimise an older device.