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How to (Really) Delete Your iPhone's Built-in Apps


The apps that Apple pre-installs on the iPhone are meant to be helpful. But if you don’t use them, they’re just taking up valuable storage space and a spot on your Home screen for no reason.

Up until now, the only solution for many of Apple’s primary iOS apps was to cast them to a folder and forget about them—or “remove” them, but not really, since they still ate up space on your device. With iOS 12, however, Apple is finally letting you delete them from your iPhone for good and reclaim that precious storage space for yourself.

What you can delete

Short version: Everything. Apple has made a ton of apps merely optional now. While they’ll all automatically install on your phone along with iOS 12, Allthings.how lists out everything you can now get rid of:

  • Activity

  • Apple Books

  • Calculator

  • Calendar

  • Compass

  • Contacts

  • FaceTime

  • Files

  • Find My Friends

  • Home

  • iTunes Store

  • Mail

  • Maps

  • Measure

  • Music

  • Notes

  • Photo Booth

  • Podcasts

  • Reminders

  • Stocks

  • Tips

  • Videos or TV

  • Voice Memos

  • Watch

  • Weather

How to restore an app you deleted

If you delete something accidentally, or just want an app back that you previously trashed, pull up Apple’s App Store. It might be gone from your iPhone, but you can easily reinstall it from there.