Apple WWDC 2016: Phone stock apps will finally be allowed to be deleted with iOS 10

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Apple will finally let its customers delete the huge set of apps that comes built into the phone.

Until now, iPhones have come with a suite of apps that are stuck on the phone, and are impossible to delete. They have become even more notable in recent years as Apple has added more and more of them to the phone.

But now the company will let people remove those apps ― like Stocks or Compass ― freeing up space in the phone's storage and on the home screen.

Many people have taken to filling up a folder with all of the unused apps, referred to as a "junk drawer".

Apple boss Tim Cook had already indicated that the company would make the change, but said that work was needed because the apps are tied to other features and embedded deep in the operating system.

The full list of removable apps is available on Apple's website. Almost all of the stock apps are included, with some notable exceptions such as Phone and Messages.

The same document points out that removing apps will "affect things like related system functions or information on your Apple Watch". That is presumably related to features like the stock data that can appear on the phone's "Today" page of the Apple Watch's face.

It also advises that the apps have been designed to be space efficient, so that even deleting all of them will only free up about 150MB.

The new feature is available in iOS 10, which was introduced at an event in California. It is available to developers now and will arrive to the public in the autumn.