Apple’s WWDC keynote this morning was one of the fastest in years, as they crammed in so much information so quickly. Now that developers have started to install betas, unannounced features are starting to emerge.
According to @iWindowsTech (via The Verge), you can now delete stock iOS apps! There are so many stock iOS apps that get banished to an “Apple junk” folder by users, but now you can delete them, and re-download them later from the App Store.
As you can see from the image below, in “wiggle mode”, it shows you can delete Calendar, Weather, Notes, Watch, Mail and Apple Music (no word what happens if you delete Mail; maybe options for new default third party mail apps?):
Meanwhile, @MrVernier confirms you can also delete Reminders, Stocks and Compass as well:
Last September, Tim Cook hinted users may soon be able to remove default iOS apps, in an interview with BuzzFeed:
“This is a more complex issue than it first appears,” he says. “There are some apps that are linked to something else on the iPhone. If they were to be removed they might cause issues elsewhere on the phone. There are other apps that aren’t like that. So over time, I think with the ones that aren’t like that, we’ll figure out a way [for you to remove them]. … It’s not that we want to suck up your real estate, we’re not motivated to do that. We want you to be happy. So I recognize that some people want to do this, and it’s something we’re looking at.”
Update: Apple has released a support document detailing the apps you can remove:
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
Apple says you can only remove the Contacts app from an iPhone only; you won’t lose your contacts, as they will remain within the Phone app.
If you remove the Music app, you won’t be able to use it with CarPlay. As for the News app, you soon be able to delete that in a future iOS 10 beta. For Canadians, we don’t have the News app yet anyways, so it doesn’t apply to us (I haven’t installed iOS 10 yet).
Deleting the Watch app from an iPhone will prompt an alert asking if you want to unpair the associated Apple Watch, before you can delete it.
Who’s excited for this? Finally!
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I would bet that in the end, this is just going to lead to bunch of functionality issues on your iDevice when you, say, hit a “mailto” link on a website and your iPhone freaks out because the MAIL app isn’t there to take the request.
On the other hand, if these apps are going to be downloadable from the App Store, maybe it means the apps will be updated more frequently with new features and bug fixes? There’s no reason, other than Apple stubbornness, why Apple’s Mail app can’t be as robust as Outlook, Inbox, Spark, etc.
The link on the word *released*, here’s the link https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204221, states that the functionalities of certain of these apps <ould disappear accordingly with the removal of the app.
Why does the title have a “finally”? It’s not like Apple’s late to the uninstall-first-party-apps game: Android doesn’t let you uninstall Google, OEM, or carrier apps, and neither do Windows Phone or BlackBerry 10 devices. If anything this is something Apple’s doing first, before its competitors. But, sure, “finally”.
Because many iOS users have wanted this option for a long time now. And it’s finally here.
Gary, I’m perplexed by the absence of the New app in Canada.
I wonder what are the issues?!
Maybe Rogers is pushing back? It would be competition to their Texture App and we know what Rogers thinks about competition!
On the other hand I updated my wife’s phone a few months back and it appeared and hasn’t left … Too bad it doesn’t interest her! Hahaha
Implementing the availability in both english and french. It’s only available in the UK and Oz aside from the USA
It works when you switch the country region from Canada to US.
In the meantime, there’s no option to disable “search” option when you swipe your finger down or scroll to the far left of the screen. iOS is too restricted when it comes to customization.
So does this mean we can choose default apps? Will fantasical pop up if I select and hold an adress?
I really wanted to finally use Maps but they made me ticked with no offline support so I guess good riddance !!
I’ll keep most of them, but goodbye Stocks, Tips, Voice Memos, and Podcasts!