I can’t figure out how to add icons for my favorite apps onto the home screen of my Galaxy S 5. So frustrating! How do I pin the app icons onto the home screen on my Android smartphone?
For someone coming from an iPhone or iOS environment, it’s a bit confusing to understand how on an Android phone there’s a compartmentalization of apps into either one of the multiple home screens, or apps that are “hidden” in the all-apps area. Interestingly, that’s exactly how Windows 8 — and Windows Phone — works too, which leads to all sorts of confusion when you add a new program from the app store and it vanishes without adding a “tile” or icon to the main screen or menu.
Where is it? Turns out that it’s in the all-apps area. Confusing!
And Android is exactly the same. You’ve probably already figured out the secret too, without realizing the implication: tap on the circle icon on the bottom of your main screen, the icon with the six tiny squares within, and you’re in the all apps area. But how do you move an icon from there onto the home screen?
Let’s have a look!
First off, here’s a typical home screen, this particular one from a Verykool SL5000 device:
See that icon in the middle of the bottom row? The circle with the six tiny squares?
That’s how you get to a set of screens that have every single app installed on the device. Tap on it.
Now you can swipe left/right to see all the apps on the device, in alphabetical order.
Find an app you want to add to the home screen, then tap and hold your finger on it. I’ll demonstrate by moving the “Gallery” app onto my own home screen.
Once I tap and hold, the screen changes to show the home screen and you simply drag the app icon onto it:
Notice that there’s more than one home “rectangle” shown. If you’d rather have it on the left or right home screen rather than the main one, just move the icon there instead.
As you move it, think about where you want it to go relative to other icons already there. Move it between two and they’ll shift to make space. As you get near to a valid “target” area, a subtle rectangle will appear too:
Done? Just lift your finger up!
And now, the app’s icon is on the Android phone’s home screen:
With a little bit of work, you can reorganize what’s on the home screen, move things to the left or right additional home screens, and even remove an app or two if you just don’t like them where they are.
Oh, and a handy tip: You can drag icons onto the very bottom too if you’d rather have easy access to different apps!
All works as described, but some of the apps eg Messenger, Evernote will disappear after powering off. I tried restart, replace icons, but they will not remain. I even did a launcher reset. This of course removed all icons, plus my three other windows. I found out how to get them back yet. I have tried to put the offending icons back on the home screen last night. Powered off and this morning they are missing again. I have a Nokia 3 with Android 8.1. 0 any suggestions? Thanks.
I ca get my apps on my home screen but the ones I had for my contacts now say contact does not exist and I cannot add any new contact to my homescreen. I have an LG v20 phone. Why did this stop working?
I tried your solution so as to get my Skype app onto my home page, but it wasn’t even listed under my apps. I finally found it listed under the Microsoft apps icon, so was then able to use your solution to add it to my home page. Thank you.
Gee, thanks, but it didn’t work for me at all. I was able to move a few apps but then the spaces all disappeared. Were you using a Galaxy S5?
Yes I was. Try restarting your phone to see if the empty spaces show up again?
Just tried it, and I do have 18 apps, but I do want to show many more on my home page. On my S3 all I did was push the app longer and it popped up, on this S5 I was able to move them onto another page by pushing a button before I selected the app and moved them that way. But those pages are gone now.
Thank you! I have been trying to figure this out for months!
You can even create folders for your apps by dragging one icon on top of another. This will create a floder, then you can add other icons into it, so now you can sort your games, social media apps, etc. all into their own folders.
How? I tried this still can’t move the apps. This is why I prefer my iPhone 6. Something this important. Should be user friendly and easy to figure out on your own.
IPhone 6 moving icons:
1. Leave your finger on the icon for 3 seconds.
2. A little x will appear on the icon’s top right corner.
3. Touching the x deletes it. The are you sure box will appear I guess this prevents accidental deletions.
4. Hold your finger in the icons center and move it to desired location.
Yep it’s that easy, why android made this so difficult is beyond me.