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iOS 10 won’t let you delete space-wasting stock apps after all

Announced as part of iOS 10, the original news inevitably pleased many Apple fans who have requested the feature for years. In iOS 9, apps like Stocks and Compass are bundled by default but aren’t useful to every user. They cannot be hidden from the home screen and end up wasting space, both in the interface and on the phone’s storage.
With iOS 10, Apple will be changing that. You’ll be able to remove apps, giving you more space on the home screen for things you actually need. The “Miscellaneous,” “Extras” and “Stock” folders on iPhones around the world will finally be made redundant.
Unfortunately, the feature doesn’t work in the way it initially appeared to. As Cult of Mac reports, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, confirmed to John Gruber on his Daring Fireball podcast that apps don’t actually move anywhere when they are “uninstalled.”
Uninstalling a stock app removes its icon from the home screen and deletes references to it throughout the operating system. The app remains installed and present on the phone though, waiting to be reactivated should you choose to use it again in the future.
The apps all have listings in the App Store but these act as simple links to reinstall the app. Tapping the button to “install” a removed app doesn’t actually install anything. Instead, iOS simply puts the relevant icon back on the home screen and enables the app again. This explains why the reinstallation process occurs almost instantly.
For some users, this functionality may still be welcome. It is possible to remove apps from the home screen and get rid of the clutter you never use. The implementation doesn’t allow you to free up storage space however, a prospect that was exciting many people.
On baseline iPhones with 16GB of storage, space can be consumed rapidly. Owners have long called for a way to remove storage-wasting stock apps that they never open, allowing it to be reclaimed for third-party apps, photos or music. Apple still hasn’t provided a solution for these users. “Removing” an app effectively hides it rather than completely uninstalling it. The removal does delete the app’s data, which could free up some space, but the app itself remains intact.
Federighi told Gruber that Apple has to keep the app binaries on the device to keep the operating system usable. iOS’ stock apps are deeply ingrained into the platform and removing them could cause issues elsewhere, as previously alluded to by Tim Cook.
The design may disappoint customers who had thought they’d be able to gain some disk space after installing iOS 10. As it turns out, you’ll still need to keep Stocks, Find Friends and Watch installed but now you can optionally hide them from view.
iOS 10 will launch in the fall on newer iPads and the iPhone 5 and later. Besides the ability to hide stock apps, it also features a smarter Siri, reworked lock screen, improved notifications and redesigned versions of Apple Music and Maps.

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