I have searched for this answer for quite a while with no luck. Is it currently possible to remove the appstore from an iPhone?
No, it is not possible. Even on company controlled devices the App Store will still be present. Using MDM (Mobile Device Management) you can control a lot about the phone, but the App Store is still present.
Remove built-in Apple apps from the Home screen on your iOS 10 device or Apple Watch
With iOS 10, you can remove some built-in Apple apps from the Home screen on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple Watch.
When you remove a built-in app from your Home screen, you also remove any related user data and configuration files. This can affect things like related system functions or information on your Apple Watch.
The apps built into iOS are designed to be very space efficient, so all of them together use less than 200MB. Removing built-in iOS apps doesn't free up storage space on your device.
Built-in apps you can remove from your Home screen
If you have iOS 10, you can remove these apps from your Home screen:
Calculator
Calendar
Compass
Contacts1
FaceTime2
Find My Friends
Home
iBooks3
iCloud Drive
iTunes Store
Mail
Maps3
Music3
News (where available)
Notes
Podcasts3
Reminders
Stocks
Tips
Videos or TV
Voice Memos
Watch app4
Weather
If you remove the Contacts app, all of your contact information will remain in the Phone app.
If you remove the FaceTime app, you can still make and receive FaceTime calls in Contacts and the Phone app.
If you remove the iBooks, Maps, Music, or Podcast apps, they won’t be available to use with CarPlay.
If you try to remove the Watch app from an iPhone that’s paired with an Apple Watch, an alert asks you to unpair your Apple Watch before you can remove the app.
Remove a built-in app from your Home screen
On your iOS device, touch and hold the app lightly until it jiggles. If the app doesn't jiggle, make sure that you're not pressing too hard.
Tap Remove on the app, then tap Remove.
Press the Home button to finish.
If you have an Apple Watch, removing an app from your iPhone also removes that app from your Apple Watch.
Restore a built-in app that you removed
On your iOS device, go to the App Store.
Search for the app. Make sure that you use the exact name of the app. Find the correct name of built-in apps.
Tap to restore the app.
Wait for the app to restore, then open it from your Home screen.
If you have an Apple Watch, restoring an app to your iPhone also restores that app to your Apple Watch.
What happens when you remove built-in apps from your Home screen
Removing built-in apps from your Home screen can affect other system functionalities. Here are some examples:
If you have an Apple Watch paired with your iPhone, removing an app from your iPhone Home screen also removes that app from your Apple Watch Home screen.
If you remove the Podcasts app from your Home screen, Podcasts won’t be available with CarPlay.
If you remove the Music app, you may be unable to play some audio content using Apple apps or third-party apps on some car stereos or stereo receivers.
If you remove the Stocks or Weather app from your Home screen, stocks and weather won’t be available elsewhere. For example, you won’t see stocks and weather information in Notification Center on your iPhone or as Complications or Glances on your Apple Watch.
If you remove the Calculator app, the calculator won’t appear in Control Center.
Related
When I launch my App Clip for the first time, iOS decides to show an app banner automatically. Our app clip is essentially the full version of the app so we don't want our users to upgrade to the app immediately.
Is there a way to hide this on launch?
Not that I know of. AFAIK Apple didn't intend App Clips to be a brand new distribution method outside the App Store.
They're just meant to be slices of a full app, so there's no way to turn off this banner that nudges you to download the complete app (that I could find).
I was told multiple times that other apps do this but I can't seem to find any documentation on how to do that.
The behavior I would like to achieve is:
User starts iOS app and navigates to particular screen.
User presses start action/workout button and starts action/workout on iOS app.
At the same time user's Watch wakes up and shows corresponding screen in Watch app which acts as info screen for the current action/workout in iOS app.
User can press pause button on Watch and pause the action/workout in iOS app (this part is working already via WCSession).
So the question is basically how can I launch Watch app when either iOS app starts or when user does something in iOS app?
P.S. It is not a question of launching iOS app from Watch app, AFAIK for that I can use handoff.
I am currently prototyping an iOS iPad app for my company. Before I go in the details of what I am trying to do, this will be an enterprise app deployed by a local MDM. All the iPads that will have the app installed are supervised with a mobile config that allows the app to be in autonomous single app mode. So far, everything is working fine. The iPads are not (and cannot) be jailbroken.
I am looking for a way to basically switch the app to the foreground whenever the iPad is unlocked. I am aware of this thread (ios open app after screen unlock) from 2013, and I am hoping that 5 years later a solution has popped-up. Since our app is an enterprise app, it does not have to respect the app store requirements. I can successfully detect lock events if the app is opened when the device is locked, but when the app is not in the foreground, I would need it to be awaken from an iPad event.
The basic idea is that whenever the iPad would be unlocked, the app would freeze the iPad in single app mode, and the user need to perform some action inside the app to "reenable" the iPad and disable single app mode. If a user can re-lock the iPad and bypass the app (even if he successfully accessed it once) it's a no-go for us.
Edit
I am trying to awake the app after the unlock of the device. Basically once the iPads is unlocked (after pressing the home button) the app would be started automatically.
That is a loaded question but you could lock the ipad to only use one application with "Guided Access" There is a walkthrough here.
Here are the first steps:
Open “Settings”
Go to “General” > “Accessibility”
Tap on “Guided Access” (Scroll down the page a little, it’s under
the “Learning” section)
Flip the switch to “ON”
Tap on “Set Passcode” (this will prevent
users from leaving “Guided Access” mode)
Enter a passcode
Launch your App
With your app still open, triple-click the Home button
Want to put the icon for our iOS app on the iOS Notifications Screen that can be accessed when a user has not entered their passcode, so that the user can launch the app when the phone is locked without needing to input their passcode. The goal is for a very fast launch with minimum time from a locked iphone. We don't need to actually send the user a notification. Would also be great for this to work on Android, but iOS is currently more important for this feature.
What is the best way to do this using Cordova? Is there an existing plugin for this purpose?
Thanks
It is not possible to launch an iOS app without unlocking the phone/device. The notifications screen is only available once the iOS device is unlocked.
(thanks to dan)
Since iOS8, when near to the beacon, system is showing an icon of the app that is using this beacon in left bottom corner on a locked screen. I have seen screenshots on the web that are showing shopping card icon when user doesn't have the app installed. I wonder how does iOS identify the app basing on beacon? Do developer have to register his beacons somewhere?
Those icons are for apps that are already installed on the phone (the screenshots show the AppStore app and the Apple Store app). The icons show up on the lock screen whenever the apps discover a beacon they are looking for.
Other folks have reported that the AppStore app has prompted them to download a retailer's app when in the vicinity of the retail store, but this has yet to be substantiated. See here: Can I get my iOS app to appear on the lower left corner of the lock screen?
There is no publicly announced way to register a beacon with the AppStore to trigger this behavior, although it is possible it is part of some private deal or trial effort between Apple and third party retailers.
If anybody else sees this behavior, please report the name of the retailer and the location so others can try to reproduce.
This is all available from Apple. You can read more in this document.
Essentially, you create a UUID that you embed into all the iBeacons that you want to use with your app. Then your app has this UUID too so it knows when iBeacons are around that you are interested in.
Top of page 3 in the linked document.