One of the various new features introduced to iPad with modern iOS is a revamped Dock, complete with a new Recent and Suggested Apps section that appears on the far right side of the iPad Dock, delineated by a faint separator line.
Most iPad users will appreciate having the Suggested Apps and Recent Apps section allowing for easy access to apps that were accessed recently or that are often used, but for those who don’t want to see those Dock items they can be disabled. Maybe you prefer minimalism, or maybe you don’t want to offer any leads on what apps you were recently using or use often. In any event, here’s how to hide and disable the Suggested and Recent Apps feature of the Dock for iPad in iOS.
Note the Suggested and Recent Apps capability is only available to iPad users with iOS 11 or later installed on their device, neither the setting or feature is available in earlier iOS releases or on other iOS devices.
How to Disable Suggested and Recent Apps in Dock for iPad
By disabling the suggested and recent apps feature in the Dock, those apps will be hidden and no longer appear in iPad Dock, this is a simple settings change:
- Open the “Settings” app on iPad and go to “General” and then to “Multitasking & Dock”
- Locate “Show Suggested and Recent Apps” and toggle OFF to hide the feature from the Dock on iPad
Once the setting has been turned off, if you return to the Home Screen or flick open Control Center on iPad you will notice the right side of the Dock has fewer icons visible now.
The “Show Suggested and Recent Apps” feature will show up to three apps that are either suggested or recent. The suggested apps are learned and generated over time based on app usage habits, and the list will change periodically throughout the day and periodically depending on what apps you’re using.
How to Show Suggested & Recent Apps on iPad Dock
Of course you can reverse this setting any time and enable the suggested and recent apps feature as well:
- Open the “Settings” app on iPad and go to “General”
- Now go to “Multitasking & Dock”
- Under the “Dock” section locate “Show Suggested and Recent Apps” and toggle ON to show the apps feature on the right side of iPad Dock
Returning to the Home Screen or the Control Center to reveal the iPad Dock will show the recent apps feature available and visible again.
What about the other Dock icon that sometimes appears on the far right side of iPad Dock?
If you disable “Show Suggested and Recent Apps” and still find an occasional icon appearing on the far right side of the iPad Dock, like what is shown in the screenshots here, that icon is likely from Handoff. The Handoff capability is identified by a little device badge hovering over the app icon, and the Handoff feature lets you pass app sessions from one iOS device to another iOS device or Mac, and vice versa. To hide that apps Dock icon as well, you’d need to disable Handoff on the iPad.
