In the realm of silly first-world tech problems, the outcry over the inability to remove first-party apps from an iPhone 6S or iPad Pro 9.7 is among the silliest of struggles. Thankfully, it looks like Apple has finally heard your cries. Well, sort of.
A new bit of code inserted into the metadata across Apple's entire app-osphere hints that you may be able to hide unwanted first-party apps in the near future – but not remove them.
AppAddicts have discovered recently added boolean (true/false) parameters "isFirstParty: and "isFirstpartyHideableApp," which appear to determine whether first-party apps, like Compass, News, Notes and Stocks can be hidden.
As this has been an issue for years, you might have already devised a clever solution to put them out of sight, like into a folder titled "GTFO" on an unused page. Personally, it's enough to get the annoying app tiles out of the way.
Unfortunately, it's not the same for everyone and even Apple's new solution may not be enough. I imagine that you're asking "why exactly can't these apps be removed?"
As we reported back in September, iOS is constructed in such a way that, like a PC, certain core apps and files are necessary to keep things running smoothly and thus, cannot be removed.
Tim Cook has gone on the record, saying that "We'll figure out a way [for you to remove them]" but until iOS loosens its dependance on first-party apps, hiding them might be as close to removing them as we're going to get. Fingers crossed that the feature arrives before or with iOS 10.
Via AppAddict
