If you’re an organization junkie and an iPhone user, iOS has provided you with a useful tool: the App Library, which organizes your apps into labeled groups to make them easier to find. Introduced with iOS 14, all your current apps can be found there, and any apps you download are kept there as well. (You can decide if you want apps to appear on your homescreen as well; we’ll tell you later in this article.)

If you haven’t looked into the app library by now, here are some ways to get started.

automatic group

The App Library appears as a separate page on your homescreen. Wherever you are on your homescreen, just keep swiping left – the app library will be the last page you hit.

It automatically organizes your apps into folders labeled with different categories. For example, Last I Viewed, My Tips, Recently Added, Utilities, Photos & Videos, Productivity & Finance, Social, Other, Entertainment, and Information & Reading. Each folder is divided into four quadrants; Each quadrant shows an icon representing an app. If a folder contains more than four apps, the remaining icons are shrunk and grouped into their own quadrant.

You can open an app directly from its icon in the App Library. If the app is part of a group of small icons (and therefore too small to tap), tap anywhere in that quadrant, and the entire category will fill up your screen so you can select the app you want.

Long-press on any app in the app library, and a pop-up menu lets you delete it, share it, or use one of its features.

If you can’t find an app, select the search field at the top; You will get an alphabetical list of your apps. You can either type in the name of the app you want or scroll down to find it.

However, you don’t get to decide where the new app will appear in the app library.

clear your home screen

Since most of your apps are available in the App Library, you can remove them from your homescreen if you wish and make things a little less cluttered. For single app:

• On the homescreen, long press on the app you want to remove.
• tap delete app,
• tap remove from home screen,

You can get rid of a bunch of Home screen apps at once by long-pressing on an empty space on your homescreen. Tap on the “minus” sign on the corner of each app you want to remove from the homescreen and select remove from home screen,

If you really want to keep your home screen clean, you can arrange for newly installed apps to appear only in the app library.

• go to Settings > Home Screen
• choose either Add to Home Screen either app library only, You can also choose to show the notification badge in the app library and the app search icon on the home screen.

The App Library is an interesting part of the iOS arsenal, allowing for increased organization of apps and a cleaner, less crowded home screen.

Update August 31, 2022, 4:20 PM ET: This article was originally published on September 18, 2020, and has been updated to reflect changes in the OS.