How to use the Home screen on iPhone or iPad: The ultimate guide

July 7, 2014

The [Home screen](/home screen) — known behind the scenes as SpringBoard — is the central hub of iPhone and iPad activity. It's not a destination. You're not meant to linger there and stare. It's a transport, a gateway. It's what gets you to your apps and your content. From the Home screen you can tap app and game icons, music and video players, web browsers and online stores. You can also access Spotlight to quickly search for apps, content, and more, and invoke Multitasking, Notification Center, Control Center, Siri, and more.

How to rearrange app icons to customize your iPhone or iPad Home screen

The iPhone and iPad Home screen is an app launcher — it contains a grid of icons that represent all the apps on your device, and if you tap one, you launch the app. The iPhone and iPad come with a full suite of Apple apps built-in, but you can add many, many more through the App Store. Once you have a bunch of apps, however, you might want to change the way they're organized. For example, if you use Facebook a lot you might want to put that on the front page. If you use Camera a lot and Phone not very much, maybe you want to switch its place in the dock? Luckily, iOS makes it easy to organize your apps just the way you want!

How to rearrange app icons to customize your iPhone or iPad Home screen

How to create, change, and delete app folders on your iPhone or iPad

The iPhone Home screen can hold dozens and dozens of apps, but thanks to folders, that number leaps up to thousands. Folders lets you collect and organize apps of a similar type, or for a similar task, all together in one place. Bets of all, they're simple to create, simple to change, and simple to delete.

How to quit or kill multiple apps at once on your iPhone or iPad

Multitasking now provides full on background processing for every app — and intelligently so! Basically, iOS waits until it thinks you need something, then makes sure it's there when you do. If one app needs access to data, it organizes other apps that might need access too. This all combines to let your iPhone and iPad stay responsive, and your battery life stay long-lasting. But what happens when something goes wrong, or you decide you want to quit or kill an app and its processes? Easy! With the multitasking card view, you can close up to three apps at one!

How to quit or kill multiple apps at once on your iPhone or iPad

How to access and use Spotlight search on your iPhone or iPad

Spotlight is an easy way to find almost anything on your iPhone or iPad. From the field you can search for music and apps, contacts and email messages, and much, much more. Best of all, Spotlight is easily accessible from the Home screen — any Home screen!

How to access and use Spotlight search on your iPhone or iPad

How to access and use Notification Center from the Home screen on your iPhone or iPad

Notification Center collects and organizes all your alerts, all in one place, including on the Home screen. Whether they're in Notification Center proper, or a banner or a popup, whether they beep or buzz, Notification Center does all it can to make sure you get all the alerts you need.

How to access and use Control Center from the Home screen on iPhone or iPad

Control Center can be called up right from the Home screen. Once activated, Control Center gives you instant control over radios like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and lets you toggle Airplane mode and orientation lock. There are also media controls for your audio and volume, brightness controls, and a way to quickly launch everything from the camera to the calculator.

How to access and use Control Center from the Home screen on iPhone or iPad

How to access and use Siri on the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad

Siri is Apple's virtual, personal, digital assistant with a personality straight out of a Pixar film. With Siri, your iPhone or iPad can help you do all sorts of amazing things, from keeping in contact, to keeping on time, to keeping informed. And you can access all of it right from your Home screen!

How to access and use Siri from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad

How to restart, reset, or recover your iPhone or iPad

Most of the time you'll want your iPhone or iPad on and ready to go at a click of the sleep/wake or Home button's notice. And most of the time it'll work just fine at that click. But once and while you may want to power off your iPhone or iPad for a period of time, or you may want to restart it — or even reset or recover it — to get it working like it should. Luckily, all of that is easy to do!

How to get more help with the Home screen and iOS