Organising apps - lesson
Organising apps
What's coming up?
In this activity you’ll learn how to organise the apps on your device. As your collection of apps grows, you can group them to make them easier to find. You’ll also learn how apps send notifications to your device, and what you can do to control this.
Start activityHow to tell a new app is installed
After you tap Install or Get in the official app store, your device will download and set up the new app automatically.
You can tell when the new app is ready, when the app icon appears on your Home screen. Tap the icon to open the app.
Finding the app icon
Some kinds of smartphone might not put the icon on your main Home screen. You might need to swipe left or right to see a new screen with your most recent apps.
If you have an Android phone and still can’t find the new app, swipe up on your screen to open the App screen, where you can scroll or swipe through all your apps or search for the new app.
Apple devices have an app search
If you use an iPhone and can’t find a new app, you can search for it by using the App Library function. Swipe right on the Home screen until it appears, then type the name of the new app into the search bar. The app’s icon should appear, and you can tap it to use the app.
You can group apps into folders
When you have a large collection of apps, it can be useful to group them into themed folders. Simply tap and hold the icon for one app, then drag it onto another app icon and let go. The two apps should form a new folder. You can name this folder and drag more app icons into it.
Control notifications in device settings
Apps can be useful, but they may also constantly send you annoying notifications. This might be about updates, or even worse, ads for the paid version of a free app!
All smartphones use the Settings app to let you control notifications from individual apps. You can explore the Settings app to find Notifications settings and choose how often an app is allowed to send you an alert or notification.
Deleting apps
When you no longer have any interest in or use for an app, it’s safest to delete it entirely from your device.
You can explore your device’s Settings app for how to delete apps. From the Home screen, you can also try holding your finger on an app icon until a menu appears, which includes the option to delete.
eSafety tip
It’s good practice to delete old apps that you no longer use. Some apps will continue to collect data or just drain your device’s battery, so the best, and safest thing to do is remove them from your device entirely.
Well done!
This is the end of the Organising apps activity. You’ve learned where to find apps, and how to close, delete and organise apps on your device.
You have now reached the end of the What is an app? course.
