How to Clean up Your iPhone’s Home Screen with Invisible Folder Names
For some reason, Apple doesn’t want you to have blank folder names on iOS. But if you’re not a fan of labeled folders, there’s now a workaround.
Normally, it’s impossible to get a “blank†folder name. If you delete all of the characters out of a folder’s name, iOS will put them back once you tap Done. Similarly, the same thing will happen if you try to type a “space†character.
Basically, Apple will just revert back to the folder’s original label. And it gets harder and harder to find naming workarounds in iOS. Previously, there was an option to use a food-related app to create a blank folder, but Apple has since patched it.
But the folks over at GadgetHacks have come across a new workaround that relies on a special Unicode character: the Braille blank space (U+2800). That character looks like this [â €] (the space in-between the brackets).
[â €] - U+2800
Obviously, it looks just like a blank space, but iOS won’t recognize it as your typical spacebar tap.
In other words, you’re able to paste it into a folder name field and leave it there. It will register as a character, and as a result, your folder will appear to have a blank label.
You can try it yourself. Just follow the steps below.
How to Remove Labels from Folders on iPhone or iPad
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On your iOS device, tap and hold to copy the “blank” space between these brackets [â €]
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Next, go to the Home screen.
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Tap on a folder.
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Tap and hold on the folder name to bring up the edit mode.
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Tap on the X to clear out the current label.
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Paste the blank character you copied into the input field and hit Done.
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Once you’ve successfully blanked out a single folder name, you can copy and paste that blank Unicode character into your other folder labels.
This, obviously, allows you to get a much cleaner look for your Home screen. That’s particularly true if you like to all of your applications into folders for a minimalist app grid.
This has been tested on iOS 12, iOS 12.0.1 and iOS 12.1 Public Beta. And according to GadgetHacks, because this is such a niche problem that requires specific knowledge of obscure Unicode characters, Apple is unlikely to patch it in the foreseeable future.
It’s not necessarily a bug, so it persists through typical iPhone restarts, force-restarts, or even full software updates. It’s a good long-term solution if you’re looking to blank out your folder names for a cleaner look.