How to remove or delete application shortcuts on the desktop of an Android smartphone

Cleaning your home screen of unnecessary icons

When you buy a new smartphone, the manufacturer often preinstalls its own software, which is almost always useless. The desktop is cluttered with various icons, and it is impossible to place really important shortcuts.

There are different ways to clear icons

For your information! The pre-installed software is protected from removal by standard tools, and thus the icons remain on the desktop.

On Samsung phones you can quickly get rid of unnecessary icons:

You need to open “Settings” and go to “Themes”.
Oh and click "OK". After this, the layout of the main page will be completely changed, only the main applications will remain: “Contacts”, “Messages”, “Camera”, “Google”.

How to Remove Android Apps from the Play Store

This method works on all modern versions of Android and starts by opening the Play Store.

Then click the hamburger button in the top left corner. It looks like three parallel lines and is highlighted in the screenshot below.

In the menu that opens, click My apps and games.

Tap the Installed tab to display a list of all the apps installed on your Android smartphone or tablet. Find the app you want to remove and click the Open button next to its name.

The Play Store app page will open. Here you can find the delete button. Click on it.

You will be asked to confirm that you want to remove the application. Select OK and you're done.

The selected application will be removed from your Android device.

Cleaning your desktop from unnecessary third-party and system shortcuts

Smartphone owners are faced with the problem of how to remove an icon from the screen on Android. To perform removal, you must use standard tools or third-party software.

Standard utilities

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The Android operating system provides tools that allow you to perform the removal procedure without using third-party applications. The instructions are the same for almost all smartphones, including Honor:

Go to the desktop and click on the desired shortcut.
Using a hold, after a few seconds you will be able to drag the WhatsApp icon to another location.
A shopping cart symbol will appear at the top of the main screen.
Drag the icon and click on the “Delete” button in the pop-up field.

You can disable the automatic creation of icons using the standard Google application - Play Market. To do this, you need to call up the side menu and find the “Add icons” option. After that, uncheck the corresponding item.

Important! This function is provided only in earlier versions of the Play Market program.

You can also remove icons using standard tools in some smartphones, where the manufacturer implements its own graphical shell to display the interface:

on Redmi phones, icons are deleted as standard by simply dragging them to the trash. System application icons on Redmi cannot be removed;
Xiaomi gadgets have a “Hidden Programs” function. To do this, open “Settings” and go to “Application protection”. In the upper right corner of the screen, click on the gear icon. Then you need to unlock (pattern code or fingerprint) and activate the “Hide” option. Next, go to the “Management” tab and check the checkboxes with those programs that will be visible on the desktop.

For your information! On Lenovo phones, the removal process is standard, as is the case with most devices. On some earlier versions (4.0.0), you can clear your desktop of unnecessary shortcuts using third-party software.

Third party launchers

There are several of the most functional programs that allow you to perform cleaning.

Apex Launcher

To clean the main screen, you need to use a special launcher. Using Apex, you can hide unnecessary icons and also remove system icons:

Download the software via Play Market and install.
Perform the initial setup of the desktop layout “Horizontal” or “Vertical”.
Press and hold on the icon and select “Delete” in the pop-up context menu.

Apex Launcher

Niagara Launcher

New launcher that allows you to hide and remove icons:

In the main menu, select the desired shortcut and press and hold to bring up the context menu.
In the pop-up window, tap “Delete/Hide Icon” and activate one of the actions.

Lawnchair

Instructions for using the application:

Install the application and tap on the icon on the main work screen.
Use a hold to bring up the context menu.
Open the “Settings” item and click “Delete/Hide” in the pop-up window.

How to prevent the installation of icons in the Play Store

To prevent icons of recently downloaded software from appearing automatically, follow these steps:

Open Google Play, swipe left to open the menu. Tap “Settings”;
Uncheck the “Add icons” checkbox.

This simple setting only applies to applications downloaded from this directory. In some firmware, you can disable the automatic appearance of shortcuts for all APK files. For example, to prevent icons from appearing automatically after installing the software, on Xiaomi devices you can perform the following steps:

Open device settings. In them, find the “Work Section” section, open it;
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Tap the button with the same name again;
Select "From Application Menu".

There is no need to reboot your device.

Why are shortcuts duplicated and how to remove them?

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Duplication of labels is justified by the following problems:

incorrect flashing of the device or performing a hard reboot when an image of a green robot with a triangle and an exclamation mark appears on the screen;
software conflict or presence of malicious files;
the user performed the installation on the internal and external storage simultaneously;
Problems with duplicating application files in the system cache.

Users often face the problem of how to remove a duplicate shortcut from the Android desktop. To do this, you can use the method of clearing the launcher cache:

Open “Settings” and go to the “Applications” tab.
In the list, select the default launcher (system or third-party).
Click on the “Memory” button, activate the “Reset” and “Clear cache” button.
Reboot your Android smartphone.

Clearing the system cache

How to prevent new shortcuts from appearing

Even after cleaning the desktop, there is a possibility that new shortcuts will appear when installing new applications. If regular cleaning is not part of your plans, you can disable the automatic addition feature. In the vast majority of models, the task can be accomplished as follows:

Open "Play Market".
Click on the “Menu” icon or swipe right.
From the available actions, select “Settings”.
In the list that opens, find the command “Add icons of installed applications to the home screen” and uncheck the box next to it.

For Android Oreo, a different procedure is provided.

Press and hold the Home screen until the menu opens.
Tap the “Settings” item.
From the list of available options, select the “Add icon to home screen” command.
Move the slider to the left (or uncheck the box), deactivating the action.

Cleaning widgets

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Removing a widget is similar to the procedure for clearing shortcuts:

You need to press and hold on the desired widget.
Move it to the top of the screen, where an image with the text “Delete” will appear.

Note! It should be remembered that most widgets are tied to an installed application, and to clean it you will need to erase the program from the phone.

Selecting an appearance

Let's first decide on the choice of launcher for an Android mobile device. If the standard firmware is installed, and this is the case in most cases, then you will use the basic interface, but, unfortunately, it is not possible to change the number or delete the created desktops. In this regard, you should choose the most optimal launcher for yourself. And then he will help solve the question of how to remove the Android desktop. Launcher for the mobile platform introduces a new interface and may have different visual designs, as well as other changes.

White frames around icons

To remove white borders on icons, you will need third-party software QuickShortcutMaker:

Download the program from Google Play Market and install it on your device.
Go to “Settings” through the side menu and select “Icon Frames”.
In the list, activate the “Icons only” function. After this procedure, the white squares on the icons will be removed.

QuickShortcutMaker

Hiding an icon from the desktop

Starting with the Android 8 operating system, developers have introduced home screen personalization settings:

Tap on an empty area of the screen using hold.
At the bottom, click on the image in the form of three dots to go to “Settings”.
In the list presented, deactivate the “Add icons” slider.

How to remove icons from the Android screen is a problem that exists for almost every smartphone owner. This can be done using standard operating system tools or third-party launchers. System icons can only be removed when using Root rights.

Leader

Currently, ADW.Launcher is considered one of the most popular. It has gained high popularity due to the fact that it can be used both on a tablet and on a mobile device. With this application, you can create multiple screens at once and customize them as you wish. In order to make changes to the contents of this launcher, you need to click on an area of the screen and then hold for several seconds. As a result, a small window should open in which you can install or remove widgets, add new applications, as well as general desktop settings. In addition to the positive aspects of this launcher, there is also a drawback - the complete lack of ability to remove applications from the installed panel. In order to remove elements you do not need, you will need to use the standard launcher of the mobile system. But it is still possible to delete your desktop using this popular application. In order to take a closer look at the given software solution, you will need to download it, and for this you can use the Playmarket.