How to Delete Apps From Your iPhone

With over 1 million apps in the App Store and more released every day, it's never been easier or more appealing to try out new iPhone apps. However, downloading apps means you'll find many you don't like and want to delete. Deleting unused and unwanted apps frees up storage space on your phone.

When it's time to remove apps from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, there are three techniques you can use to remove apps. You can also delete apps that come with your iPhone.

Person using an iPhone with several apps on the screen with delete icons atop them — Maritsa Patrinos / Lifewire

Since iOS devices run the same operating system, virtually all iPhone tutorials also apply to the iPod touch.

How to Delete Apps From the iPhone Home Screen

This is the fastest and simplest way to delete apps from your phone:

On the iPhone home screen, find the app you want to uninstall.
Tap and hold the app icon until all the apps wiggle.

This is the same process you follow to re-arrange apps. If you have a phone with a 3D Touch screen, don't press too hard or you'll activate a menu. It's more like a tap and light hold.
On iOS 12 or earlier, skip this step and go to step 4. On iOS 13, a menu pops out from the app icon. You can either tap Rearrange Apps or keep holding the app icon until the apps start wiggling.
Tap the X in the upper-left corner of the icon.
When prompted to confirm your decision, tap Delete to delete the app. If you changed your mind, tap Cancel.

If the app stores some of its data in iCloud, you're asked whether you want to remove your data from Game Center/iCloud or leave it. If you expect to use the app again, leave the data there.
The app is now uninstalled. Repeat the process to delete other apps or press the Home button (or tap the Done button on iPhone X, XS, XR, and 11 series) to go back to normal operations.

If you change your mind about deleting the app, you can't undo the uninstall to undelete the app. However, you can install the app again by re-downloading it.

There's one scenario in which your apps might seem to be deleted but are still on your iPhone. If that's the case, you can get missing apps back on your iPhone.

How to Delete Apps From the App Store App

This option is only available on devices with iOS 13 and up. On those devices, you can delete apps from the Update screen in the App Store app by following these steps:

Tap the App Store app to open it.
Tap your photo or icon in the upper-right corner.
Scroll to view your list of Available Updates.
For any app that has an update that you want to delete, swipe right to left to reveal the Delete button.
Tap Delete.
In the pop-up window, tap Delete to remove the app from your phone.

How to Delete Apps From iPhone Settings

This method of deleting apps isn't the easiest—and one most people haven't considered—but it works. This approach is helpful if you want to uninstall apps that use a lot of storage space.

These directions work for modern iOS versions but should also be relevant for older ones like iOS 10, 9, and 8.

Open the Settings app.
Go to General > iPhone Storage. If you don't use a modern version of iOS, tap Usage.

In older versions of iOS, tap Manage Storage to see all the apps on your phone and how much space each takes up.
Select the app you want to delete, then tap Delete App.

Beginning in iOS 12, you can offload the app. This removes the app and leaves associated documents and data intact. Reinstall the app to get everything back up and running.
In the confirmation menu, tap Delete App to continue with the uninstall.

How to Delete Apps Using iTunes

You can use iTunes to add apps and other content to your iPhone. You can also use iTunes to remove apps.

This technique doesn't work with iTunes 12.7 or higher since those versions of iTunes no longer support the App Store. Another way to use your computer to delete apps from your iPhone is with a third-party iPhone manager like Syncios.

Sync your iPhone to iTunes. You can sync over USB or sync over Wi-Fi.
Select the iPhone icon in the upper-left corner of iTunes.
Choose the Apps tab.
The left column lists the apps installed on your iPhone. Scroll through it and find the one you want to delete.
Select Remove next to the app. Repeat this process for as many apps as you want to remove.
Use the Apply button in the lower-right corner to sync iTunes and your iPhone. Any changes you made in iTunes are reflected on your iPhone, including removing the apps from your phone.