How to Prevent Apps From Showing Up in Search and Siri Suggestions in iOS

[MacRumors]

In iOS 12 and earlier versions of iOS, Siri analyzes your app use, browsing history, emails, messages, contacts, and information from third-party apps to provide customized suggestions for searches, Look Up, News, Photos, and more.

Siri syncs this information across all of your devices to provide a more personalized experience, and this information is also anonymously sent back to Apple to "make your searches more relevant."

All of this information is encrypted, but you may not want to use the feature because of privacy issues or you may not want certain apps showing up on your device. For that reason, Apple has expanded privacy controls so you can customize Search and Siri Suggestions to your liking.

How to Disable Siri Suggestions for Individual Apps

If you want to use Siri Suggestions but don't want certain apps to show up as suggested content, you can disable them on an app by app basis. This feature was introduced in iOS 11 and it keeps sensitive apps from showing up in suggestions, searches, and more across your operating system.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Scroll down to Siri & Search and tap it.
3. Scroll down to see a list of all of the apps that work with the feature.
4. Select each app you don't want to show up in search and Siri suggestions.
5. Tap the Siri & Suggestions button to toggle it off.

When you disable apps, information from those apps will not show up in Search, Look Up, and Keyboard as you use your iOS device. So, for example, if I disable the Files app, content stored in my Files app will no longer come up in a search or anywhere else.

In the screenshot below, I have Files enabled for Siri and Search Suggestions on the left, and on the right, I've disabled the feature. As you can see, content from the Files app no longer shows up.

You can toggle off any of your installed apps to prevent their data from being displayed when you search, use the keyboard, and ask Siri questions.

Siri will ignore disabled files but will continue to learn your preferences from enabled apps and show content from those apps, which is probably how most people will prefer to use this feature. For a full lockdown, though, disable your apps and turn off Siri Suggestions entirely.

How to Turn Off Siri Suggestions Entirely

If you don't want to use Siri suggestions at all, there are three simple toggles for turning it off.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Scroll down to Siri & Search and tap it.
3. Scroll down to Siri Suggestions.
4. Toggle off Suggestions in Search.
5. Toggle off Suggestions in Look Up.
6. Toggle off Suggestions on Lock Screen.

With these two settings toggled off Siri will not provide personalized suggestions when you search for things, and your data will not be anonymously sent to Apple to power the Siri features. Note that Siri will still bring up apps installed on your devices in search and other areas -- this just disables the feature that lets Siri learn your preferences and send data to Apple.

To keep apps from showing up entirely, you'll need to use the individual app settings, as outlined above.

Preventing Siri Suggestions From Sending Your Location to Apple

In some cases, Siri Suggestions sends the location of your device to Apple alongside your search queries so Apple can provide more relevant recommendations. You can keep your location from being sent to Apple by disabling a specific Location setting.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Choose Privacy.
3. Tap Location Services.
4. Scroll down to System Services and tap it.
5. Scroll down to Location-Based Suggestions and toggle it off.

Siri Suggestions is a useful feature so most people won't want to toggle it off completely (and it is completely private -- Apple encrypts and anonymizes all data) but being able to prevent individual apps like Safari, Mail, and others from showing up lets you customize your results for a more streamlined experience and it prevents anything you don't want to see from popping up unexpectedly.

Article Link: How to Prevent Apps From Showing Up in Search and Siri Suggestions in iOS

 

[LiquidSnake13]

Wait a minute... Am I the only one experiencing crashes when trying to select a considerable amount of text in a Page file?

 

[Time Less]

We need a toggle to disable all apps or toggles next to the names. 3 steps for each app is tedious.

 

[Compote]

Siri always knows when I want to use Grindr... HA! Not anymore!

 

[mcdj]

I’m more interested in a way to disable the word suggestions at the top of the results. It used to be apps at the top of search results and I used it as a launcher by typing a couple of letters of the app name. Now the app results are partially obstructed by the keyboard and less intuitive to reach.

 

[Nicksd84]

Can someone explain the difference between search and “look up”

 

[dlondon]

Good. About time this was introduced. Not only apps you want to hide, but ones you don’t need to appear in the list too.

 

[jgerry]

I’ve just figured out that you can’t even find an app with Spotlight anymore. WTF. Some show up, some don’t, and I have to type the entire app name before it shows up. Bad Apple. BAD!

 

[higgalls]

I’m more interested in a way to disable the word suggestions at the top of the results. It used to be apps at the top of search results and I used it as a launcher by typing a couple of letters of the app name. Now the app results are partially obstructed by the keyboard and less intuitive to reach.

This is an easy fix.

Settings > Siri & Search > turn off Suggestions in Search.

 

[mcdj]

This is an easy fix.

Settings > Siri & Search > turn off Suggestions in Search.

Not really. That removes everything I previously searched for. With search suggestions on, I see all my recently searched apps, but lower in the screen. In iOS 10 those apps appeared at the top of the screen. Now they're moved below random text results.

 

[dlondon]

I’ve just figured out that you can’t even find an app with Spotlight anymore. WTF. Some show up, some don’t, and I have to type the entire app name before it shows up. Bad Apple. BAD!

Spotlight is probably still indexing.

 

[patrickplaggenborg]

I’ve just figured out that you can’t even find an app with Spotlight anymore. WTF. Some show up, some don’t, and I have to type the entire app name before it shows up. Bad Apple. BAD!

The app won’t show up at the top if ‘Search & Siri Suggestions’ is disabled for this particular app.

I always had it disabled for most because I found the in-app search result suggestions to be cluttering.

I want a quick and easy way to spotlight search an app by typing 2-4 characters.

The only way to do this now is to enable ‘Search & Siri Suggestions’ for this app. It will then show up almost at the top. Right below the text search suggestions.

Unfortunately this also enables all the other in-app search clutter again.

I’ve submitted feedback to the Apple iPhone feedback system. I suggest everybody who finds this annoying to do the same.

 

[travoose]

The app won’t show up at the top if ‘Search & Siri Suggestions’ is disabled for this particular app.

I always had it disabled for most because I found the in-app search result suggestions to be cluttering.

I want a quick and easy way to spotlight search an app by typing 2-4 characters.

The only way to do this now is to enable ‘Search & Siri Suggestions’ for this app. It will then show up almost at the top. Right below the text search suggestions.

Unfortunately this also enables all the other in-app search clutter again.

I’ve submitted feedback to the Apple iPhone feedback system. I suggest everybody who finds this annoying to do the same.

I have done exactly this as I, too, find this very annoying. In addition to that I also cannot seem to add my Apple gift cards to my Apple Wallet anymore...if it is still an option maybe I am doing it wrong? Anyone else have this issue?

And....in my Messages app when I search for a contact it shows that contact but only in the group chats they have previously been involved in, rather than just that individual contact...anyone else with that issue too?

I’ve submitted feedback for all three of these issues, but I truly hope it is my user error and not Apple removing/changing things.

 

[bartszyszka]

I wish there was a way to prevent some apps from showing up without having to turn off Siri Suggestions completely. Right now, and in iOS 10, you can only prevent the *contents* of apps from showing up, not the apps themselves (on an individual basis).

 

[patrickplaggenborg]

I wish there was a way to prevent some apps from showing up without having to turn off Siri Suggestions completely. Right now, and in iOS 10, you can only prevent the *contents* of apps from showing up, not the apps themselves (on an individual basis).

‘Search and Siri Suggestions’ can be disabled per individual app.

When disabled it stops showing in search-
- the content of the app
- the app itself

It will still show textual search term suggestions but for many apps this doesn’t appear when typing 3-4 characters. You need to type almost the entire app name and tap it for the app icon to show in the search results.

 

[sjcaro]

I’ve just figured out that you can’t even find an app with Spotlight anymore. WTF. Some show up, some don’t, and I have to type the entire app name before it shows up. Bad Apple. BAD!

Yes, very bad. I have lots of apps, and never use the "icon" to open it. Until iOS 11, I used Spotlight to find any app with the 2 inicial letters... now it is not working anymore. I have to type the entire app name exactly to show up, or search for the app in the app store and then open it from there...

 

[sduck]

Has anyone tried hiding an app from search recently? I've tried everything here (on my iphone X running whatever the latest iOS is as of this posting) and snapchat will still show up in search.

 

[d_novice]

I've changed Siri/Search settings and that makes some difference. However if I swipe down to open the search field, and I type the single letter "H" in, Hangouts pops us. I want to disable that kind of search/search result.

 

[yoz-y]

Yes, very bad. I have lots of apps, and never use the "icon" to open it. Until iOS 11, I used Spotlight to find any app with the 2 inicial letters... now it is not working anymore. I have to type the entire app name exactly to show up, or search for the app in the app store and then open it from there...

Luckily, I think in iOS 11.2 Apple has added a new option that allows you to disable the search in the app but still show the app!

 

[rui no onna]

We need a toggle to disable all apps or toggles next to the names. 3 steps for each app is tedious.

Ugh, yes. I think I just got carpal tunnel going one by one and disabling Search & Siri Suggestions for ~100 apps.

 

[Sakyant]

We need a toggle to disable all apps or toggles next to the names. 3 steps for each app is tedious.

Agreed One by one app deactivation is stone age
I would also like spotlight to stop bringing up the apps themself in search. I switch all spotlight searches off as the only thing i use the spotlight search bar for is to use the 'search the web' feature, and any other search results bury the 'search the web' but i always tap on.. like the google earth and chrome apps in above image.. i dont want any results to bury 'search web'... all i want is 'search web'

i dont 'search this ipad/iphone' anyway, so spotlight search is the most superfluous thing.. never use it. Reason i never use it to find mails or files etc, is that if i seek a mail, i go to mail app and use search in that

There is only one thing i use spotlight search for on a Mac, which i cant use on iOS... why? because i rename my jpeg files and movie files to title them with logical titles like 'me and my son swimming'
Spotlight search is good to search for a jpeg file because i rename them all.
But iOS you CANT rename jpegs to give them names which fit with the picture, so spotlight search is UNUSABLE to search for files. It only searches for apps and content within apps..., but its not a file search

Which makes it useless to me