The iPhone can present you with ways to accomplish tasks based on a lot of different criteria. Occasionally it will take a piece of information, such as your location, and check to see if any of the apps that you have installed might be relevant to that location. This is done via a feature called Suggested Apps, which will display apps either on your lock screen, or on the screen that appears when you double-tap your Home button.
But you may find that you are opening apps accidentally when they appear in this location, and that the utility they provide is not worth the added problems that create. Our tutorial below will show you where to turn off the Suggested Apps setting on your device and prevent those app icons from appearing there.
Turning Off Suggested Apps on the Lock Screen and App Switcher on an iPhone 5
The steps in this article are going to stop app icons from appearing on your lock screen (they are usually seen at the bottom-left corner) and on the App Switcher. The App Switcher is the screen that you see when you press your Home button twice in a row.
Step 1: Tap the Settings icon.
Step 2: Scroll down and tap the iTunes & App Store option.
Step 3: Scroll to the bottom of the screen, then tap the button to the right of Install Apps to turn it off.
Is your iPhone automatically updating your apps, but you would prefer to do it automatically? Click here and learn how to install the updates manually and turn off the automatic app update option on your device.
Gary Thompson has been in IT consulting since the mid 2000s, and enjoys writing about mobile devices and computers. His primary topics of interest include iPhones and Windows, but he has written about many other devices and applications.