Lacking apps? Here is find out how to discover them in your Google Pixel cellphone

Android presents you quite a lot of other ways to customise your own home display, 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 bear in mind that Android provides you the flexibility to decide on a completely new launcher, you possibly can basically change how your own home display 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 own home display and now do not know find out how 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 couple of surefire methods to seek out hidden apps in your cellphone. Here is find out how to find the apps you are searching for if they don’t seem to be on your own home display.

Methods to discover hidden apps on a Pixel cellphone

Search the app drawer on your lacking app

In contrast to different launchers, the Pixel launcher Google makes use of on Pixel telephones does not supply a direct method to “disguise” apps such as you may discover on a Samsung Galaxy S24 or via a third-party launcher like Nova Launcher. That does not imply it is not very straightforward to unintentionally take away an app from your own home display whereas transferring every part round, simply by dragging it to the mistaken place.

If that occurs, the perfect place to look first is in Android’s app drawer, the searchable listing 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.
2. Faucet the highest search bar (your cellphone may have already got it chosen) and kind the title of the app you are searching for.
3. If you do not know its title, scroll via the app drawer till you see an app icon you acknowledge.

From there, you possibly can add the app again onto your own home display or launch it immediately from the app drawer for those who’re prepared to make use of it proper now.

Look via the All Apps listing to see every part put in in your cellphone

If the app you are searching for wasn’t within the app drawer, there’s an much more full listing of functions put in and operating in your Pixel cellphone within the Settings app. Inside, you’ll see not solely your put in apps, but in addition extra purposeful system elements that it is advisable to run your cellphone’s varied 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, for instance.

To entry the All Functions listing:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Faucet on Apps.
3. Faucet on “See all apps.”
4. Faucet on the search icon within the high proper (a small magnifying glass) and kind the title of no matter app you are searching for.
5. Alternatively, scroll via the listing till you see an app icon you acknowledge.
6. To see completely every part put in in your cellphone, faucet on the three dots within the high proper nook and faucet “Present system.”

If the app you are searching for is not on that listing, there is a good probability it is not in your cellphone anymore. Except, after all, 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 will likely be yet one more method to disguise 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 together with your fingerprint, face, or passcode. Apps must 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 a bit of extra intense than simply hiding an app from your own home display, Non-public Area will likely be out there 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 doesn’t suggest your outdated Android cellphone 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 cellphone will ask you to substantiate you need to uninstall it — no app is ever really gone out of your smartphone. You may take consolation in that reality, particularly contemplating how easy it’s to seek 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 adaptability you may get out of a desktop pc. Meaning you may need to learn a bit more earlier than you are feeling really snug utilizing your cellphone, however you may probably have the opportunity to do a lot more, too.