How to Remove the Search Button from iPhone Home Screen
Your iPhone’s Home screen includes a Search button that allows you to find anything on your device and the web. This button is located at the bottom of the screen under the app icons and above the Dock. If you have more than one page, Search appears on all of them. This is called Spotlight Search. This is a live search; you will see the results updating as you type. You can also launch Spotlight Search by swiping down from the middle of the Home screen.
The Home Screen Search button was introduced with iOS 16. Before this, the same spot was occupied by a string of dots indicating the different pages of the Home screen.
I should also mention that this Search button is only available on iPhone models with Face ID. If your iPhone supports this feature, it is enabled by default. This option and the related settings won’t be available on iPhone models with Home buttons.
Since it is really easy to start a Spotlight Search by swiping down on the Home Screen or the Lock Screen, some users may prefer to get rid of this Search option. You may see this as redundant and want to remove it. In this article, I will show you how you can do this.
Hide the Search button on iPhone Home Screen
- On your iPhone, tap Settings.
- Tap Home Screen & App Library.
- Under the Search option, turn off the Show on Home Screen switch.
Now you will notice that the Search field is replaced by the dots, as you can see below. You cannot hide the dots. It is either the dots or the Search button.
If you have the Search button enabled, it will briefly disappear automatically when you are navigating through the pages.
My last note is that when you hide the Search button, you won’t get an extra row of apps. Nothing else will be changed visually.
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