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Cannot hide apps drawer in iMessages

Hi. I just updated my iPhone SE to iOS 12.3.1, and after that I cannot hide the app icons bar in iMessages.

Considering 1) i don't use it, 2) it's visually distracting, 3) takes up space on my small screen, I would like to hide the bar/drawer.

I already removed all app icons except for the Photos and App Store which are (not my) "favourites" and cannot be removed.

The buttons for the camera and A on the left from the texting field are grey and do not function.

i used to hide this bar before, and i would like to have it hidden.

If there is no way to do it now, would it be possible to downgrade my iphone to the previous iOS version? If so, what version was the last one allowing me to hide the iMessage apps bar?

Looking forward to possible solutions.

iPhone SE

Posted on Jul 2, 2019 11:40 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 3, 2019 6:42 AM

I found a way to hide the Apps Icons in iMessage, and it works!

It seems that because I only send and receive text messages (iMessages and MMS both turned off), the grey photo and app store icons near the texting field are disabled (which makes sense).

However, in order to hide the annoying app drawer/bar you should have the grey app store icon enabled. To enable it, i had to go into the Settings>Messages and turn on MMS. Enabling MMS made the grey photo and app store icons function!

Tap on the grey app store icon and it should hide the app bar below. After that, we need to go back to the Messages settings and disable MMS.


I'm glad I found a way to hide the app drawer. I haven't seen anyone ever explaining how to do it when the grey buttons don't function, and in fact an Apple Support chat assistant said it could not be done. Well, so far we still can change the look of iMessage but it wasn't intuitive.

Thanks!

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 3, 2019 6:42 AM in response to Latlive

I found a way to hide the Apps Icons in iMessage, and it works!

It seems that because I only send and receive text messages (iMessages and MMS both turned off), the grey photo and app store icons near the texting field are disabled (which makes sense).

However, in order to hide the annoying app drawer/bar you should have the grey app store icon enabled. To enable it, i had to go into the Settings>Messages and turn on MMS. Enabling MMS made the grey photo and app store icons function!

Tap on the grey app store icon and it should hide the app bar below. After that, we need to go back to the Messages settings and disable MMS.


I'm glad I found a way to hide the app drawer. I haven't seen anyone ever explaining how to do it when the grey buttons don't function, and in fact an Apple Support chat assistant said it could not be done. Well, so far we still can change the look of iMessage but it wasn't intuitive.

Thanks!

Cannot hide apps drawer in iMessages

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