Customize Spotlight Search feature in iPhone and iPad

The Spotlight search offers the easiest and the most convenient way to find apps or programs on Apple devices. Using its suggestions, you can get the latest updates on news, sports, weather, and more. Also, the same feature could be used for another reason - removing unwanted clutter. Yes, you can trim down undesirable elements by customizing Spotlight search. Here’s how to do it!

How to customize Spotlight Search feature in iPhone and iPad

Almost all apps, these days, make their content visible under Spotlight for no apparent reason. These include even apps whose contents you never intend to search. You can check this. Simply dig ‘Settings’ and go to ‘Siri & Search’. There, you can find how many of your apps show up in the search results. If you would like to change this default behavior, there are 2 ways of doing it.

1. Disable Spotlight Search for Apps
2. Disable Siri Suggestions in Spotlight Search

The former option lets you choose each of them individually and clear them from the screen, manually while the latter simply clears all the suggested apps and action sections in one go.

1] Disable Spotlight Search for Apps

Open the ‘Settings’ app.

Scroll down to ‘Siri & Search’ section.

Now, find the app that you want to clear permanently from the Spotlight search results and when seen, tap its listing.

Slide the toggle adjacent to the ‘Show In Search’ option to 'off' position to remove it from search results. Note: the step will also disable the app’s Shortcuts suggestions.

Hereafter, the app’s search results will no more show under Spotlight search. You can repeat the steps for other apps, you would want to exclude from Spotlight search.

2] Disable Siri Suggestions in Spotlight Search

This is just a two-step solution.

First, open the ‘Settings’ app and go to the ‘Siri & Search’ section.

Second, locate and toggle the slider for ‘Suggestions In Search’ to ‘off’ position.

That’s all to it! Also, see our earlier post - How to create an animated GIF in Keynote on iPhone and How to change the subtitle or audio language in Apple devices.