Lacking apps? This is the way to discover them in your Google Pixel cellphone

Android presents you loads of other ways to customise your property 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 while you have in mind that Android offers you the power to decide on a wholly new launcher, you’ll be able to essentially change how your property display screen works with little effort.

Throughout that customization course of — perhaps you are organising a brand new Pixel 9 to your liking — you might need hidden some apps from your property display screen and now don’t know the 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 a number of surefire methods to seek out hidden apps in your cellphone. This is the way to find the apps you are on the lookout for if they don’t seem to be on your property display screen.

How one can discover hidden apps on a Pixel cellphone

Search the app drawer in your lacking app

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

If that occurs, the most effective place to look first is in Android’s app drawer, the searchable record of each app that got here pre-installed in your cellphone and that you’ve got 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 cellphone may have already got it chosen) and sort the identify of the app you are on the lookout for.
3. If you do not know its identify, scroll by the app drawer till you see an app icon you acknowledge.

From there, you’ll be able to add the app again onto your property display screen or launch it immediately from the app drawer in the event you’re prepared to make use of it proper now.

Look by the All Apps record to see every little thing put in in your cellphone

If the app you are on the lookout for wasn’t within the app drawer, there’s an much more full record of purposes put in and operating in your Pixel cellphone within the Settings app. Inside, you’ll see not solely your put in apps, but additionally extra practical system parts that it’s worthwhile to run your cellphone’s varied useful options, like Android System Intelligence, which governs issues like producing Reside 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 sort the identify of no matter app you are on the lookout for.
5. Alternatively, scroll by the record till you see an app icon you acknowledge.
6. To see completely every little thing put in in your cellphone, faucet on the three dots within the prime proper nook and faucet “Present system.”

If the app you are on the lookout for is not on that record, there is a good likelihood it is not in your cellphone anymore. Until, in fact, you are operating Android 15 and the app is a wholly totally 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 disguise apps with Non-public Area. When you allow it in Settings, Non-public Area offers you a devoted folder of apps that is invisible till you unlock it along with your fingerprint, face, or passcode. Apps should be immediately put in into Non-public Area, cannot be accessed till they’re unlocked, and their information and notifications are saved separate from the remainder of your cellphone.

Whereas it is slightly extra intense than simply hiding an app from your property display screen, Non-public Area might be accessible on any cellphone operating Android 15 with no need 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 does not imply your previous Android cellphone cannot nonetheless be helpful as a webcam, MP3 participant, and extra.

Discovering hidden apps is about understanding the place to look

Until you explicitly uninstall an app — your cellphone will ask you to verify you wish to uninstall it — no app is ever actually gone out of your smartphone. You’ll be able to take consolation in that truth, particularly contemplating how easy it’s to seek out apps.

The fantastic thing about Android, significantly Google’s taste of it, is that it tries to steadiness the ease-of-use of Apple’s iOS with the performance and suppleness you may get out of a desktop laptop. Which means you might need to learn a bit more earlier than you are feeling actually comfy utilizing your cellphone, however you may probably have the option to do a lot more, too.