One new feature of iOS 10 that has gotten good feedback from the Internet Peanut Gallery is the ability to delete some of the built-in apps that Apple installs on iOS devices. However, it turns out that deleting the apps on your iPhone doesn’t really delete them.
Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, confirmed that on The Talk Show Live, which is hosted by popular Apple blogger John Gruber.
Federighi told Gruber that while deleting the apps does make them disappear from the Home Screen, and gets rid of some of the associated user data, the actual app binary remains on the device, due to their being “baked into” iOS.
Federighi says the apps are part of the system binary for security signing reasons, and that’s why the built-in apps are only updated when iOS itself is updated.
The iOS 10 beta, released to developers on Monday, allows users to remove from their device’s Home Screen any of these 23 built-in apps included in iOS:
- Calculator
- Calendar
- Compass
- Contacts
- FaceTime
- Find My Friends
- Home
- iBooks
- iCloud Drive
- iTunes Store
- Maps
- Music
- News
- Notes
- Podcasts
- Reminders
- Stocks
- Tips
- Videos
- Voice Memos
- Watch app
- Weather
If you do remove any of the above apps from your Home Screen when you install iOS 10 in the fall, and decide you’d like it back, you can simply visit the App Store and “reinstall” them with a couple of taps.
iOS 10 is currently available to developers for testing. A public beta is expected to be released in July, with a release to the general public in the fall.
