The day iOS users will be able to truly get rid of unwanted stock apps are near.
Apple (AAPL) has snuck in a bit of code in iTunes that suggests that users will soon be able to entirely hide apps like Stocks, Tips, and Compass instead of shoving them into a folder somewhere on their phones, according to AppAdvice. The company added two keys, labeled “isFirstParty” and “isFirstPartyHideableApp,” into iTunes metadata and they’ve appeared on every app in the store.
Back in September, Apple CEO Tim Cook told BuzzFeed that it plans to eventually make this possible. “It’s not that we want to suck up your real estate; we’re not motivated to do that. We want you to be happy. So I recognize that some people want to do this, and it’s something we’re looking at,” he said.
However, as AppAdvice notes, the keys can be set to “true” or “false,” which means that not all apps will have this ability, something Cook also alluded to in September. “There are some apps that are linked to something else on the iPhone. If they were to be removed they might cause issues elsewhere on the phone. There are other apps that aren’t like that,” he said.
It’s not clear what Apple’s plans are for this feature, but it’s possible it will announce it in June at its annual developer conference in San Francisco, where it traditionally reveals the new features in its next operating system for desktop and mobile, among other products.