Home Screen, Sweet iOS 8 Home Screen

Once past the Lock screen, you’re presented with the Home screen—the grid of app icons where you launch the apps you love. Resting at the bottom of the Home screen is the Dock, which offers a fixed set of apps on every Home screen page. The iPhone and iPod touch Docks can hold four apps, while the iPad Dock can hold six ①.

① This simple grid of icons is the main iOS interface.

Getting Home

To return to the Home screen from any app, press the Home button on your device.
Or on the iPad, if Multitasking Gestures are enabled in Settings > General, pinch the tips of four or five fingers together on the screen.

Note: For an explanation of the small icons in the status bar at the top of the screen, see Status Bar, Left, earlier.

Tip: To quickly move to the first (“main”) page from some other page, press the Home button.

Home Screen Pages

The Home screen is divided into pages, which are automatically added and removed as you install and delete apps.
The small white dots above the Dock indicate which page is currently visible on the Home screen.
To flip between pages, flick the screen left or right.

Re-arranging Icons

To enter editing mode, press any icon for a few seconds, until all the icons start to shake.
Drag an icon to where you want it to go. To move an icon to another page, move it to that edge of the screen until the page flips.
Once you’ve moved one icon where you want it, you can move more, if you like.
Press the Home button to exit editing mode.

Setting up Find My iPhone

It’s always a good idea to enable Find My iPhone in Settings > iCloud > Find My iPhone. Then, if you ever lose your phone, you can wipe it remotely (or possibly even find it) from iCloud.com or the Find My iPhone app on a different Apple device signed in to the same Apple ID or grouped with your lost device through Family Sharing.

Deleting Icons

Deleting an app’s icon from the Home screen also removes the app from your device and deletes all the data stored in the app, except for anything that might have been stored in the cloud.

To delete an app:

Press its icon for a few seconds until all icons start to shake.
Tap the x in the upper left of the icon ②, and the icon disappears.

② While the icons are shaking, a delete x appears on all app icons, except the built-in apps provided by Apple.
You can delete another icon—or move an icon, if you like.
Press the Home button to exit editing mode.

Note: To re-download a deleted app, open the App Store app and tap Updates > Purchased.

Tips for Re-arranging Icons

Use the Dock, Luke: When moving an icon over multiple pages, it’s easier to drop it in the Dock, flick to the destination page, and drag it out of the Dock than to drag it across multiple pages.
Start fresh: If you are unhappy with your icon layout, visit Settings > General > Reset and tap Reset Home Screen Layout. iOS moves the icons for the built-in apps to their default locations, and places the others in alphabetical order on subsequent pages.

Note: Apps pre-installed by Apple can’t be deleted, but you can hide them away in a folder.

Making a Folder

A folder is a handy way to group apps. To create one:

Hold down on any icon until all the icons begin to shake.
Move one app icon on top of another and hold it there.
iOS displays the new folder and suggests a name for it ③.

③ To make a folder, drop one app icon on top of another. iOS 8 suggests a folder name, but you can change it.
If you like the suggested name, tap Done on the keyboard.
If you don’t like the suggested name, type a new one into the text box and tap Done on the keyboard.

You can now tap outside the folder and continue to drag app icons into your new folder. Press Home when you finish.

Tip: Tap the x to the right of the suggested name to clear the box of all text so you can type in your own.

Deleting a Folder

Tap the folder to open it.
Press an app icon in the folder until the icons begin to shake.
Move every icon out of the folder. Once the last icon is removed, the folder disappears.
To exit editing mode, click Home.

Tip: Folders display only 9 icons at a time, but just like on the Home screen, you can flick through folder pages to access more—135 icons on 15 pages.

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