iOS 18 Productivity Hack: Hidden Apps

Hiding apps in iOS 18 is a useful tool for those apps you “need” occasionally, but want to avoid defaulting to mindlessly. You can enable this by long pressing an app icon on the Home Screen and choosing “Require Face ID”, then “Hide and Require Face ID”.

When hidden:

• Notifications are disabled,
• Content doesn’t appear in Spotlight searches,
• “Open in…” from Safari no longer happens automatically,
• The app icon doesn’t show up in the App Library, even if you search for it.

The only way you can access the app is by deliberately opening the “Hidden” app folder at the bottom of the App Library with Face ID. I find this provides a little more friction than Screen Time limits and reduces the number of times I attempt to open the app at all.