If you take a look at the home screens of 100 iPhone owners, most of them would probably have a folder full of Apple apps that they don’t use but can’t delete. Thankfully, that might finally change soon.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that his company is “looking at” allowing iOS users to delete preinstalled Apple apps. He explains that some apps are linked to another part of the phone, and so allowing people to delete them is more complex than deleting any other app. With some Apple apps that aren’t tied to other important parts of the iPhone, though, Cook says that “we’ll figure out a way [for you to remove them].”
“It’s not that we want to suck up your real estate, we’re not motivated to do that,” Cook said. “We want you to be happy. So I recognize that some people want to do this, and it’s something we’re looking at.”
Undeletable Apple apps have plagued iOS users ever since the platform launched in 2007, and while it’s gotten slightly better with folders that let you stash ‘em all in one spot, they’re still taking up space on your home screen and storage on your phone. Some folks are pretty determined when it comes to pruning their home screen and making it look nice, and a folder of undeletable Apple apps could be an eye sore for them. It remains to be seen whether Apple will actually give those people some relief by letting them delete preinstalled Apple apps, but at least the company is looking into it.
