Lacking apps? Here is the best way to discover them in your Google Pixel telephone

Android presents you loads of other ways to customise your house display screen, from the usual widgets and folders, to the customized app icons and matching wallpapers (AI-generated or in any other case) of Google’s Material You design language. And if you keep in mind that Android provides you the flexibility to decide on a completely new launcher, you may essentially change how your house display screen works with little effort.

Throughout that customization course of — perhaps you are establishing a brand new Pixel 9 to your liking — you may need hidden some apps from your house display screen and now don’t know the best way to discover them once more. Whereas the definition of “hiding” varies from launcher to launcher, and shortly from Android model to Android model, there are just a few surefire methods to search out hidden apps in your telephone. Here is the best way to find the apps you are in search of if they don’t seem to be on your house display screen.

The best way to discover hidden apps on a Pixel telephone

Search the app drawer on your lacking app

Not like different launchers, the Pixel launcher Google makes use of on Pixel telephones would not supply a direct solution to “cover” apps such as you may discover on a Samsung Galaxy S24 or by way of a third-party launcher like Nova Launcher. That does not imply it is not very straightforward to unintentionally take away an app from your house display screen whereas shifting every little thing round, simply by dragging it to the flawed place.

If that occurs, one of the best place to look first is in Android’s app drawer, the searchable record of each app that got here pre-installed in your telephone and that you have downloaded from the Google Play Retailer. To entry it:

1. Swipe up from the underside of the house display screen.
2. Faucet the highest search bar (your telephone may have already got it chosen) and kind the identify of the app you are in search of.
3. If you do not know its identify, scroll by way of the app drawer till you see an app icon you acknowledge.

From there, you may add the app again onto your house display screen or launch it immediately from the app drawer when you’re prepared to make use of it proper now.

Look by way of the All Apps record to see every little thing put in in your telephone

If the app you are in search of wasn’t within the app drawer, there’s an much more full record of functions put in and operating in your Pixel telephone within the Settings app. Inside, you’ll see not solely your put in apps, but additionally extra useful system parts that you might want to run your telephone’s numerous useful options, like Android System Intelligence, which governs issues like producing Dwell Textual content subtitles and recognizing songs for the Now Taking part in characteristic on the lock display screen, for instance.

To entry the All Functions record:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Faucet on Apps.
3. Faucet on “See all apps.”
4. Faucet on the search icon within the prime proper (a small magnifying glass) and kind the identify of no matter app you are in search of.
5. Alternatively, scroll by way of the record till you see an app icon you acknowledge.
6. To see completely every little thing put in in your telephone, faucet on the three dots within the prime proper nook and faucet “Present system.”

If the app you are in search of is not on that record, there is a good probability it is not in your telephone anymore. Except, in fact, you are operating Android 15 and the app is a completely completely different place.

How Non-public Area hides apps in Android 15

A biometrically-locked folder in your app drawer

As soon as Android 15 rolls out for Android telephones, there might be yet one more solution to cover apps with Non-public Area. When you allow it in Settings, Non-public Area provides you a devoted folder of apps that is invisible till you unlock it along with your fingerprint, face, or passcode. Apps need to be immediately put in into Non-public Area, cannot be accessed till they’re unlocked, and their information and notifications are stored separate from the remainder of your telephone.

Whereas it is a little bit extra intense than simply hiding an app from your house display screen, Non-public Area might be out there on any telephone operating Android 15 without having to obtain a brand new launcher or any separate app. That ought to make the entire strategy of hiding and discovering hidden apps much more easy.

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Simply since you moved on doesn’t suggest your previous Android telephone cannot nonetheless be helpful as a webcam, MP3 participant, and extra.

Discovering hidden apps is about understanding the place to look

Except you explicitly uninstall an app — your telephone will ask you to substantiate you need to uninstall it — no app is ever really gone out of your smartphone. You possibly can take consolation in that truth, particularly contemplating how easy it’s to search out apps.

The fantastic thing about Android, notably Google’s taste of it, is that it tries to stability the ease-of-use of Apple’s iOS with the performance and suppleness you may get out of a desktop pc. Meaning you may need to learn a bit more earlier than you’re feeling really comfy utilizing your telephone, however you may possible have the option to do a lot more, too.