Rumor Suggests iOS 10 Might Finally Allow Us to Hide Stock iPhone and iPad Apps

If you’re a die-hard iOS user, then you’re likely at least a bit troubled about the iPhone and iPad “Stock Apps” taking up unnecessary space on your screen. You know, those often considered useless apps that Apple includes by default, claims are so helpful, but, in all actuality, you have never opened a single time since you’ve owned your device?

Well, we know how it goes, friends.. And while we thought, for a while, that there was a legitimate workaround to hide these apps manually, that trick has since been debunked as nothing but a software glitch.

Fortunately, however some recently leaked evidence from the internal App Store JSON data suggests that we might soon be able to actually, legitimately hide the stocks apps for good, as opposed to just tucking them away in a folder.

As originally noted by AppAdvice, recent additions to internal API codes include keys that suggest, well, something rather self-explanatory — for instance, the presence of ‘isFirstParty’ and ‘isFirstPartyHideableApp’.

9to5Mac was able to verify via their own, independent testing protocols, the existence of binary fields for Apple’s Stock Apps — in other words, names along the lines of that listed above, which were only identifiable via an explicit “false value.” This lends credence to the prospect of hideable apps looming somewhere on the horizon, as Apple’s App Store, to date, has only hosted third-party apps that are offered as an optional download.

Therefore, it’s only reasonable to assume that, perhaps in a future update to iOS (iOS 10?), the ability to hide stock apps — like Compass, Calculator, Tips, and more — will be a legit feature.

Now, that’s not to suggest apps like Messages and Mail will boast the ability to be turned off, but perhaps that others (such as those we’ve mentioned, among others) will be removable at the user’s discretion.

What the iTunes metadata leak doesn’t reveal, unfortunately, is any information pertaining to how Apple plans to use these keys if they ultimately do. For instance, their presence could simply mean that Apple’s Stock apps will soon be listed to download in the App Store — in the instance a user hid one of the apps, but decided somewhere along the line that they wanted to restore its position on their Home Screen.

Alternatively, the data might suggest that stock apps could become less dependent on the iOS system infrastructure, as a whole, which could potentially allow Apple to individually push stock app updates to the App Store — as opposed to users having to wait for the next major system/firmware updates.

Last but not least, there’s also the remote possibility that these internal keys are intended for an entirely different purpose, altogether — even though, from what we know, it’d be rather difficult to imagine what that reason could be. I mean, a name like ‘isFirstPartyAppHideable’ is rather clear, right? However, aside from having something to do with “hiding first party apps,” it’d be difficult to entertain any viable possibilities at this point.

Of course, even if Apple is currently toying with the idea of launching such a feature in the future, there’s still the ever so remote possibility that the feature never sees the light of day.

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Wouldn’t you be thrilled, though, if Apple was actually gearing up to make hiding stock apps possible in the next release of iOS? Let us know in the comments below.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]